The raw product in question here, is you. Everything about you. Everything that makes you a citizen. Almost every Attorney General in the country has warned their citizens to carefully guard those things we commonly carry in our wallets and in our heads to identify ourselves. Our social security numbers, driver's license numbers, bank account numbers, mother's maiden name, our names, signatures and home addresses are all being digitally packaged and shipped overseas to be resold to companies and individuals all over the world.

If I am alluding to isolation and price control it is to suggest that it is the right of every American to isolate himself from outside threat and decide for himself his own worth. What would you sell the contents of your wallet for Matt? Take out the cash, I don't want it. Keep the wallet. It was probably made in China. I'll settle for everything else you have. I'm only interested in the those things in your wallet that identify you as you. Bear in mind that if I think your price is too high, I can always buy the contents of your wallet in digital form for less than a penny from any number of foreign and domestic traffickers.

Once I have this information, I can sell your identifying numbers for a very nice profit. I might sell your wife's address for example to a stalker. Liam Youens paid around $100 for this information from a databroker shortly before he murdered Amy Boyer.

I could get around $25 to $75 for your Social Security numbers from foreign nationals so they could work in the U.S. A Mexico based cartel was doing  this. They even set up franchises in  major cities throughout the U.S.
 
I might sell your credit card numbers wholesale on websites like ShadowCrew which are operated by international crime cartels. The last time I checked, credit card numbers were going for $75 each on some of thes sites. Even more, if I throw in your mother's maiden name or the last four digits of your Social Security number.

I might sell a few items off your driver's license to terrorists and other criminals. They need new identities to travel in the U.S. The 9/11 terrorists had fifty legitimate driver's licenses from five states. With just a little information from your Driver's license these guys can file a change of address and have the state mail them your new driver's license. A woman in Dallas was recently dragged out of her home in handcuffs. She had committed no crime. Someone using her license failed to show up for their hearing. Now, this innocent woman has a record both at the courthouse and in thousands of databases all over the world. The woman who used her identity has never been found.

You ask us to remember that the "profit goals are driven by stockholders, otherwise known as the general public". But the stockholders of any company are only a tiny subset of the general public.  If that subset wants to sell the contents of their wallets, then they should be free to do so. The rest of us should be free to isolate ourselves from outside threat and determine the value of our own lives.


David Bloys