Digital dystopia: how algorithms punish the poor

[Newest Reality]

Is this how poverty is going to be dealt with? It is not what we would have expected and anyone can become poor and homeless, so feeling immune to this may not be realistic or honest.

If the means are going to become draconian, then how far will that go? Is poverty going to be solved and are people going to be lifted up and out of it, or are they going to be ostracized, marginalized and even eliminated? Soylent Green, anyone? I don't think this is the way we would want this to go. In an Oligarchy, useless eaters are not respected at all.

In an exclusive global series, the Guardian lays bare the tech revolution transforming the welfare system worldwide – while penalising the most vulnerable

All around the world, from small-town Illinois in the US to Rochdale in England, from Perth, Australia, to Dumka in northern India, a revolution is under way in how governments treat the poor.

You can’t see it happening, and may have heard nothing about it. It’s being planned by engineers and coders behind closed doors, in secure government locations far from public view.

Only mathematicians and computer scientists fully understand the sea change, powered as it is by artificial intelligence (AI), predictive algorithms, risk modeling and biometrics. But if you are one of the millions of vulnerable people at the receiving end of the radical reshaping of welfare benefits, you know it is real and that its consequences can be serious – even deadly.

The Guardian has spent the past three months investigating how billions are being poured into AI innovations that are explosively recasting how low-income people interact with the state. Together, our reporters in the US, Britain, India and Australia have explored what amounts to the birth of the digital welfare state.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/14/automating-poverty-algorithms-punish-poor

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. This should be in greatest threads section.

I read this and my anxiety is through the roof. Just the thought of zombie debts with nowhere to turn makes me sick. If this happened to me and I had no way to fix it, I'd just kill myself. I have no one. In real life.
Fuck the automated crap. Fuck the rich pigs who invented and support this evil shit. Fuck the right-wing sociopaths and poor people haters. Enough of robbing the poor to make the rich richer. Fuck the abusive greedy control freaks .Almost everyday I learn something that makes me want to leave this sick place. Abandon this evil culture full of bullies. I curse this ai program and the inventers of such abusive evil in the name of efficiency. Fuck thier world.

[Newest Reality]

2. Well...

That was a righteous rant. I certainly understand how you feel and appreciate the concern and compassion that you are implying.

I live precariously on the edge as far as poverty goes, but I do keep as best of a good sense of self as possible no matter what.

Do remember that you are! I mean, there is both within and without, so take some time to relax when you can and just be. In there, it can be coherent, peaceful , relaxing, inspiring, happier, compassionate, healthy. Not everything is "out there" in life or we wouldn't know anything at all. That's helps to bring some balance considering the chaos and inequity societies generate.

It helps us cope, rejuvenate, energize and do what we can for ourselves and each other to mitigate the apathy and disrespect of those who are out of touch with their inner truth and the interconnection of everything. Being is important and that's how we connect and some of us know it is vital to realize that we are all in this together. The more we discover the truth of existence, the brighter our light shines on the lost and dark ones who make life so unnecessarily hard and add suffering to suffering.

Thankfully we have heart and compassion.

Thanks for a comment. Hang in there. Things do come to pass. May the storm abate.

Be Well!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

3. Thanks

For your kind thoughts