Apple’s credit card is being investigated for discriminating against women
theverge.com
theverge.com
Every credit card company discriminates. It is the nature of giving credit to discriminate. A private lender giving someone money is not an entitlement (at least in most societies). We build models to calculate payback. When those models work the credit lender stays profitable and afloat. When the model fails it should fail (assuming no taxpayer bailout). If the model misses out on profitable creditworthy customers then that creates opportunities for new entrants to the lending market. In fact there is already lots of competition in the credit card space and Apple card is one of so many choices available to be discriminated by. The only way to know if the algorithm works well against losses is if this card is successful in the next economic downturn. Conversely, if new entrants are profitable with similar business models to Apple will we know if the algorithm is too conservative in giving credit.
On a side note, rejecting or limiting credit to delinquent borrowers is actually doing them a favor due to the power of compounded interest.
Albert Einstein famously said that compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe. He said, “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it.”
In the case of say DHH or something, idk what his wife does/did but let’s for a second suppose that she doesn’t have a job as founder of Basecamp making $millions yearly. There would be a different attribute for the algo to differentiate.
Honestly, what’s the quick fix here?
if spouse == super_rich and other_spouse == not_so_rich_directly:
return use_rich_spouse_stats
??
Calling the card "fucking sexist" doesn't help this situation and it's likely both he and his wife got credit limits that were far above what they needed. The whole situation could have been done in a classy way and still lead to a resolution for his wife.