https://public-interest-tech.com/
Mr. Schneier and friends have created a new website to promote a change to the socio-economic technical milieu we are currently facing.
He suggests we need to have "public interest technologists" to help the situation.
He writes:
"We need technologists who work in the public interest. We need public-interest technologists.
Defining this term is difficult. One Ford Foundation blog post described public-interest technologists as "technology practitioners who focus on social justice, the common good, and/or the public interest.""
Is he right? How can this be implemented without becoming as riddled with government agents, spies and mafias as the key positions of our corporations and institutions are right now?
Full disclosure: this writer has been a public interest technologist for a while now and I have actually alluded to the need for something like what is being suggested on multiple occasions, 'a different kind of organization' is the way I put it, way back a few months ago.
Discuss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 13 2019, @04:51PM (11 children)
I don't know where you're looking at, but in the USA people have been progressively lifted out of poverty for decades, under the much-derided ideas that you choose to skewer.
Basically, (summarising a lot of data here) less than ever of the US population is wondering where its next meal is coming from, while more of the US is considering the relative merits of Apple and Samsung.
In fact, while it's true that the rich are getting richer, so are the middle classes and the poor both.
If you want to check this out, go to federal numbers from the census bureau on wealth and population segments. This is public data, well known to economists.
I mean, have fun with your little rant and all, but next time check your facts.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 13 2019, @05:08PM (2 children)
If that were all true, I would expect to cruise through the ghetto, and find "poor" people in possession of crazily modified cars, sporting huge 20 inch wheels costing thousands of dollars, wearing lots of bling, name brand "designer" clothing, snorting coke, drinking their favorite alcoholic beverages, showing off huge amounts of cash, and women dripping from their arms.
Oh, wait. A duck search of ghetto bling assures me that all of that is real . . . and, maybe I should do moderate safe searches . . . some of that stuff I really didn't want to see . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GOzbixP464 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by RandomFactor on Sunday October 13 2019, @08:14PM (1 child)
That video is pure gold.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @07:10AM
It's from one of the Bumfights movies, probably the second one [imdb.com].
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday October 13 2019, @08:11PM (1 child)
And how sustainable do you think this is? And what happens when the factors that allowed this to happen change? THAT'S the point he's making.
I never understood why people reply to arguments along the lines of "We can't keep this up, we need to change course" with "well look what it *already* did." So the fuck what? If you have an uncle who served with distinction in wartime and you find out he's been molesting your kids, do you forgive him because he has medals from what he did in the past? No.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 13 2019, @09:38PM
GGPP said there was a thing. GPP pointed out that there was no such thing. PP's response is that there might be a thing in future that doesn't exist now.
Even if PP is one hundred percent totally right, GGPP is still wrong, and given PP apparently having trouble with the thread's topic, I wouldn't bet on PP being all that right either.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday October 14 2019, @02:04AM (5 children)
Summarize this [wikipedia.org], then.
Actually, don't bother, have it here [wikipedia.org]
Having a job that doesn't pay the roof over your head and running the risk being called a criminal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @05:04AM (4 children)
Sure. Fewer people than ever are in absolute poverty in the US of A, and the number in relative poverty is dwindling as well.
The treatment of the remaining, dwindling minority could use some improvement, but the general trend is that population scaling down.
There's your summary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @10:27AM (1 child)
Yet, almost half of the country can't afford a $400 emergency, very few can afford a $1,000 emergency, and half of the country makes $30,000 a year or less. This while wealth inequality keeps increasing, and while Trump's tax cuts have resulted in the rich paying a lower effective tax rate than working people. Having a TV or some other bits of technology does not make up for any of this. Saying, 'Well, things are better in some ways than they were in the past.' justifies none of this. This is like saying that someone in China ought to be happy with their totalitarian government because it's marginally better than North Korea's. Comparison is the enemy of freedom and justice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @04:56PM
Yes! Make all the things perfect! Right now! No time for moving in the right direction! Instant total perfection for everyone!
.... which happened nowhere, ever.
But the US is moving in the right direction. Obviously a plot of the ultrarich vampire lizardpeople.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 14 2019, @01:52PM (1 child)
Given the reference, one wonders if the reduction in those numbers isn't "achieved" by "accommodating" of those poor people in prisons, to work for peanuts.
Wouldn't be terrible surprising.if so, late stage capitalism is bound to do a full circle and step into late stage communism; because there is no chance of endless growth, much less an exponential one, and the rich can keep their wealth only by brutal authority.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Monday October 14 2019, @02:22PM
Well, well, well, ain't that [google.com] interesting?
Homelessness in the state and federal prison population. [nih.gov]
Court-imposed fines as a feature of the homelessness-incarceration nexus... [oup.com]
Results
Our respondents experienced homelessness an average of 41 months during the current episode. Nearly two-thirds reported being convicted of a crime, and 78% had been incarcerated. More than 25% reported owing current legal fines. Individuals with legal fine debt experienced 22.9 months of additional homelessness after considering the effects of race, age, and gender.
Conclusion
We confirmed a strong association between homelessness and legal trouble. Among high-income countries, the USA has the highest rates of legal system involvement and the highest rates of homelessness; the relationship between the two may be connected.
Homelessness and Incarceration Are Intimately Linked [endhomelessness.org]
---
(RIP, MDC, I reckon you knew a lot about both homelessness and mental illness by direct experience).
Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford