[MyNameIs_Hacker]

It seldom creates significant inconvenience or financial obligations when someone pays additional taxes in your name. It only becomes a significant problem when the fraudster is obtaining money or services in your name.

The burden of authentication is not on the entity who issued a simple ID number, it is on those who go on to use it as if it is a secret.

I think your trust in credit card companies is misplaced. The only thing that holds them back is consumer protection laws, and they fight those however they can. Jack up rates, check. Grant credit at a sales point of presence with a minimum wage sales clerk doing identification, check. Sell or trade your payment history, check.

In some moral systems, lending money to make money itself is outright wrong. If you maintain a balance on your credit card for day to day expenses, any financial advisor will tell you to stop that.