So, I'll get the keys of the apartment later today, or tomorrow; definitively tomorrow. However, I won't have electricity just yet (gas and water are included in the rent). I've applied to the electric company (Southern California Edison), but it turns out that the first available date for turning on the service is Tuesday. At first I thought it was a technical constraint, due to technician workload. However, as I thought a little more about it, it struck me that in addition to that, it's due to the credit check they do on applicants. Yep, that's right: a credit check.
It turns out that I may well have my application turned down by the electric utility. This just confirms what I've said before about credit history and how it is all important in this Land of Opportunities (If You Have Good Credit). As the electric provider is a monopoly, that means that if they deny me service, I have no other recourse for service. If it were cable television, broadband Internet or telephone service, say, it would be extremely annoying, but not critical. But imagine living without electricity! (I saw in the news about a Hispanic family living in the Chicago area that lost some family members because they were living without electricity: they were using candles for lighting, and apparently that led to a fire which killed some of them).
Additionally, when applying for the service, they ask for a Social Security Number (SSN). Now, I don't know that they would deny service if I didn't have a SSN (fortunately, I do), but at I guess they would as they most probably wouldn't have a way to actually do a credit check. I think that it's absurd that the SSN is used in such a way, but most -if not all- computer systems use the SSN as the nationally unique key for distinguishing one person from another. It's sort of what the CURP would've been in MX, had the RENAPO (Registro Público de Población) not fucked it up -maybe not the RENAPO, but the underlying agencies tasked with the assignment (ISSSTE, IMSS, SCHP, SEP, etc); nonetheless, it is RENAPO's ultimate responsability-, and had the IFE not screwed the Electoral Key, then that could've been used as a basis, though not really, maybe only as a starting point; anyway, it's beside the point I'm trying to make here; I'll rant about these guys later).
So, in thinking about these things I'm struck at how the system screws all the people that are unfortunate enough to have (a) bad credit, or (b) no access to the credit system at all. Imagine living without electric service? Now, to apply for the apartment I also provided my SSN, which means that had I lacked it I probably wouldn't have been eligible to rent. I think of the millions of people who live and work here and who don't have an SSN. No wonder they live in the ghettos that they do: even if they wanted to, how could they?
