I'm actually kinda shocked people are shocked. This is literally capitalism — and I don't mean the vague boogyman driving greed and enshittification. The idea that government should externalize as much of itself to private companies that are affected by market forces is central to capitalist theory. If you truly believe in our glorious capitalist system this should be great because private companies will meet people's needs better than centrally planned inefficient government.
Our glorious efficient Clear, their slow inefficient TSA Pre Check.
This is like the worst of both, and has nothing to do with capitalism. This is pissing off both sides and pointing the finger at the other. How convenient.
So ask yourself who stands to benefit from it in the long run.
I'm not really pointing the finger at anyone. Capitalism is both a political and economic system that needs government to exist and, among other things, enforce property rights and create the conditions for a free market. And capitalist theory has to resolve the problem of governments needing to do things but with the fundamental belief that if they do them themselves it will produce worse outcomes than if private enterprise did them.
So a capitalist government says, "Okay since I know what I need done I will go out into the market and contract someone." This is the RFP process, bidding for government contracts, and public-private partnerships. Obviously individual instances will work out better or worse but if you trust the process you should want the government to outsource the work.
Capitalism is not a political system, it’s an economic system. Socialism is both a political and economic system. The terms are important. Here’s a summary:
The USSR did the same thing, but worse. There was one (or at most 3) vendors for not just government stuff, for for everything. Even cars, and household goods. For market efficiency of course.
And the vendor got picked by some government official somewhere, so it was almost always their friends. No worries about having to pick the low bid!
That’s why the waitlist was decades for almost anything anyone actually wanted.
Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which private individuals or businesses own capital goods and operate within in a free market system, not ‘some guy greased the palm of a government official so their business now gets to hoover up people’s personal data.’ Both capitalism and socialism have corruption, moreso in socialist systems.
The correct response to ID.me is to support US Senators who are trying to get rid of ID.me.
I'm as much of a fanboy of capitalism as you can get. BUT, if you can show me a system that works fairly and well with fallible and evil humans that's better, I'm 100% onboard and will go to bat for it.
We just don't have anything like that, and I've lost all hope in humanity. So for now, plain old freedom of association and trade (i.e. capitalism) is what I'll promote.
Our glorious efficient Clear, their slow inefficient TSA Pre Check.