Mastercard Is Taking Names

5 floors of data server racks: $12 million

Payoffs to grinning congressmembers: $80 million

Stealing your customers’ information: Priceless

How about this, Mastercard? And I won’t limit it to Mastercard, because I’m not naïve enough to think that every other card company isn’t busily backing up to local drives then deleting their network databases at this very moment. So how about this, credit-card industry in general? Since you have taken it upon yourselves to steal my information and then allow said information to be subsequently stolen from you, how about you take care of my payments for a year? How about that? For being accessory to virtual B & E, and since you didn't know, or care for that matter, how large my credit limit was, you set me up with as many transactions as your little servers (what's left of them anyway) can handle in one year. That would be even, fellas. That'd be about square.

I have to really try hard in this case not to get mad at the card industry itself. Yes of course I want justice, but I really can't be angry at them per se. After all, it’s doing what any other large amoral entity with a mob mentality would do – anything and everything within its power to make money for its shareholders. And no matter how hard I whine and moan about it, it's never going to change. But the energy expended restraining myself thus will of course be channeled to a righteous fury at those patrons of loan-sharking, those corrupt politicians, who, flush with campaign cash, allow, enable and even vote for these things to continue. At least I can vote these jerks out of office. I think...