Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Automating Inequality
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor | Virginia Eubanks
10 posts | 6 read | 13 to read
Naomi Klein: "This book is downright scary." Ethan Zuckerman, MIT: "Should be required reading." Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body: "A must-read for everyone concerned about modern tools of inequality in America." Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform: "This is the single most important book about technology you will read this year." A powerful investigative look at data-based discriminationand how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equity The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three yearsbecause a new computer system interprets any mistake as failure to cooperate. In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect. Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systemsrather than humanscontrol which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile. The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane choices: which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values. This deeply researched and passionate book could not be more timely.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
quote
plemmdog
post image

“We‘ve accepted data as though it presents undeniable truth about human worth. We‘ve entrusted it to tell us who eats, who has medical care, ...which families stay together. But if we don‘t design our systems—whether digital, political, or legal—from an unshakable belief that everyone deserves these basic rights, we are doomed to repeat the oppressive patterns of the past.”

12 likes2 stack adds
review
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image
Pickpick

Such a difficult subject, if you sign up for any social services, they collect data on you & share that data with other agencies ‘to better help you‘. A Catch 22: if you are needy enough you get services, all of that gets logged and shared, but if you aren‘t comfortable sharing all your intimate details, you won‘t be needy enough to qualify. And digital data never expires, so data about you can influence divisions made about your children. ⤵️

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ..or your grandchildren, it can be mined by police departments, etc.... And she makes the very essential point, that this technology is something only deployed on the poor, via social services, if you are well enough to pay for your own drug rehab, mental health care, etc, etc, that is protected info and not logged in a connected database. So things we as a society we would never allow on mass, is fine for “the poor” as an unprotected class. (edited) 3y
Lauram Awful. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Lauram It was a very interesting read. She followed a few case examples in different cities and programs, and the juxtaposition between the well meaning part (helping people, finding people in danger, providing services efficiently) and the way it can be used to give us a false sense of security, miss large sections of those not in the system because they can afford not to be, used to criminalize people is frightening. Plus the human biases ⤵️ 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa You‘d think you‘d lose in an algorithm, tend to get built in and in some ways amplified. 3y
50 likes3 stack adds4 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

In other words: If you were poor for generations, your child and their children are bound to be too, so don‘t have any and poverty will die out. (Nevermind the environment of those generations or what might be done to improve it).

And also a reminder about how quickly reproductive rights can get REALLY slippery, once they decide they control them, it means they control all of them, who should have children and who shouldn‘t....and I‘m afraid ⤵️

Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...that after we get real information from the border, we might confirm that some of this was happening already, hysterectomies for immigrants in some of the detention centers. It‘s been reported already, I‘m not sure if it was confirmed yet...plus there was a story of it happening to US prison inmates not too long ago. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Here‘s the California story: “And he says the state's paying $147,460 for the procedures was reasonable.
"Over a 10-year period, that isn't a huge amount of money," Heinrich says, "compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children — as they procreated more." https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/09/200444613/californias-prison-...
3y
See All 15 Comments
GingerAntics Or you could just give them access to birth control, mind your own damn business on abortion, and crack down on rapists and we won‘t have this problem. That‘s even cheaper. Just saying. 3y
GingerAntics The book I just finished used this quote as well for his discussion on the government tearing down the founders “wall of separation between church and state.” 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Right, free birth control and maybe process all those rape kits and get the serial offenders in jail and I bet the problem would go why down. But no, birth control is for sluts, and we can‘t pay for their whoring (according to medal of freedom winner Rush Limbaugh regarding Sandra Fluke‘s testimony just to include birth control in health care because it‘s used for other things than birth control) I wish I was making that last up.🙄 (edited) 3y
GingerAntics You and me both. I grew up with my grandmother listening to “Rush.” 🙄 He is a total jerk. I always marvel at the lawmaker who said “we can‘t call them sluts anymore?” Um, no. A woman who has sex with people she chooses is a grown 🤬 adult, just like a man who does the same. Woman who is raped isn‘t a slut either, as the wrong party is the rapist. I swear, sometimes I just can‘t stand conservative men. 3y
GingerAntics I know it‘s a prejudice, but I almost don‘t even care. (Then again, the women are worse at times. Just look at Amy Comey Barrette. That woman TERRIFIES ME.) 3y
Chrissyreadit @Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics one perspective that really angers me is that this issue disproportionately affects the poor. If I want an abortion or my daughter wants one we will go to where it is available. But income inequality dictates this. And those people making the laws can also afford abortions and hide the fact they had one or paid a mistress to have one. 3y
GingerAntics @Chrissyreadit that is such a valid point. If you can afford to go out of state (or out of country at the rate we‘re going), then you still have access. It would be interesting to see just how many mistresses have been paid to have them. It‘s poor people who can‘t afford the baby to begin with who also can‘t afford to go long distances in order to have an abortion if they so choose. 3y
Weaponxgirl I'm in the uk and something that always shocks me is that a lot of your states are bigger than my country and will have only a few clinics that can perform the procedure. That is INSANE! 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Chrissyreadit I totally agree with that! 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl I‘ve been to the UK and that has always struck me. The distances involved. When I wanted to travel in the UK it was a fairly short trip, a day trip. Here it took hours just to drive to an international airport to fly there... so to see whole states close down abortion rights and act like it‘s no big deal to go to another state, they are being very disingenuous...that‘s a huge trip & costly, and out of possibility for many people. 3y
Weaponxgirl @Riveted_Reader_Melissa it always struck me as so heartless. The closest comparison we had was the situation for women who were in Northern Ireland when they couldn‘t get abortions there and had to come to mainland Britain. It just puts people in a impossible position especially considering that you guys have to pay for healthcare. 3y
37 likes15 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

And I guess that‘s where the US model split from the European one...... 🤦‍♀️

Weaponxgirl Oh dont worry the uk is catching up. Our government has just announced that they will put billions into defence but apparently couldn't "afford" to feed hungry poor kids during half term. I really hate the heartless ness of attacks on any kind of benefits 3y
Bookwomble @Weaponxgirl Well, there's no profit for the Chumocracy in feeding poor children, is there? 😠 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl I‘m so sorry to hear that, it‘s really disheartening...we‘re seeing it here too, always plenty for defense, but things like education, cut that, no money. 3y
See All 15 Comments
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Bookwomble Chumocracy, I like that, and it‘s accurate....they like to approve money that goes to their businesses, their friends businesses, the companies they are invested in... like defense contractors. 3y
Weaponxgirl @Bookwomble nope and better make sure to say that Marcus rashford who has actually experienced hunger as a child is just ‘virtue signalling‘ and making it political 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl One thing I wish the US had never exported...our conservative comebacks. No matter what they do, they are fine, but everyone else is ‘virtue signaling‘, here we also have ‘crisis actors‘ who have actually experienced hardship and want to fight for change, and ‘snowflakes‘ because you actually care about your fellow humans. It‘s amazingly sad how they can take honest criticism and label it with a name and then mock it like a ... 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ...playground bully. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa And they are usually mocking those who want more equality or fairness, probably because mocking is the best comeback they can come up with. 3y
Weaponxgirl @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I think a lot of it is down to who‘s in party tbh. Boris has obviously been following in trumps footsteps and trying to emulate him. He has started talking about critical race theory like it‘s a bad thing. They wanted to export it so they have 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl There is so much that crosses over that we need to work on...like cyber voting security and outside the country influencers for things like elections and Brexit, but instead we have to deal with who that enabled....Trump and Johnson. What‘s weird to me, is they even look alike, Which is even creepier...maybe that‘s just me projecting since they say similar things. 3y
Weaponxgirl Yes, we could be such great influences on each other but kinda went lower. Boris does pretend to apologise sometimes was the only difference I really saw. He desperately wanted to be as bad as trump. 3y
Weaponxgirl But Biden winning has been great! I was genuinely concerned if trump had won again as it would have emboldened our conservatives. Now knowing that Biden is in power and has said not very flattering things about boris and has said there is no way he will deal with the uk if they break international law has tempered things a little bit. Will be honest it made me smile 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl Well that‘s good to hear. Putin definitely got what he wanted by stirring the pot, both the US & UK aren‘t seen as dependable as they once were, not that it had been great for awhile anyway. Here we are still dealing with Trump refusing to admit he lost, I‘ll feel much better after Biden is inaugurated on Jan 20th, right now it feels like Trump is just golfing and trying to shove through whatever he can in the meantime. 3y
Weaponxgirl He is such a child! I know it‘s still precarious for you guys atm but for you guys but I‘m definitely hopeful for you all. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl Thank you! I thought I‘d feel that way after Biden won, but I think since it‘s become this long drawn out thing, that relief has been subverted a bit. I‘m also tense about our Senate with is still now undecided, getting into the minutia here, but to get changes passed I‘m really hoping the control of that house will shift too before it‘s all over. Hopefully we can all get past these “leaders”. 3y
30 likes15 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

First... that‘s why labor has to organize in some way, whether you like unions or not.

Second....that soap story is golden! I love it! 😂

j9brown Wow! 😲🤣 3y
GingerAntics Soaping the tracks sounds hilarious!!! 🤣😂🤣 3y
GingerAntics The only people who think workers organising is bad are the people who don‘t want to pay fair wages and care for their employees. Never mind that by taking the burden of health care costs off their shoulders, child care costs, etc, workers are happier and thus more productive. Rich people are so 🤬 ridiculous, I swear. They may have the best educations, but they are all complete idiots. 3y
Suet624 @GingerAntics 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 3y
30 likes1 stack add4 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

Sadly I can‘t say our views or politicians discuss it much differently today...and with the current amount of pandemic unemployment I can see this issue getting hotter and heavier in political debate over the next year. We seem to be quick to bail out big banks or companies when they can‘t manage a tough period, but individuals are always somehow lazy and didn‘t plan well. 🙄

Freespirit I agree 👍🏼 3y
GingerAntics I was thinking the exact same thing. 3y
GingerAntics I often wonder how people who make just enough money to pay the bills and feed themselves - aka pay check to pay check - are supposed to plan for anything. They know one illness, getting laid off, an injury will be catastrophic. They just can‘t afford to do anything about it. 3y
See All 36 Comments
TrishB Agree totally. 😢 3y
Leftcoastzen I remember living paycheck to paycheck.Knowing I only had $20 bucks to buy groceries, looking for the cheapest items I could stretch into meals.We didn‘t take any weekend car trips ,we were so afraid of a car repair bill.There wasn‘t money to save , nearly every dollar already committed to something. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Exactly, multimillion dollar airline companies, cruise companies, don‘t have enough in savings to float them for a few months....they need a bailout because of the circumstances, but yet they expect every citizen to have a savings account with enough to float them a few months without income and still be able to pay their own bills. Same thing when the housing market crashed, the banks couldn‘t stay afloat without a bailout ⤵️ 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ but individual homeowners were supposed to know better and taken less risks....never mind that they bought their mortgages from those banks who knew what they were actually selling. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Leftcoastzen I‘ve been there, and usually it‘s committed in advance. As soon as you get paid it basically gets transferred right back out. 3y
GingerAntics It‘s truly disgusting. This is why I just do not stand for “people are poor because of their own choices” attitudes. I think it was California did a pilot program where some homeless people were given a stipend every month to help them get back on their feet, along with a housing program. They got on their feet 6 months to a year faster than people just in the housing program and they spent the money on bills, food, and necessities... 3y
GingerAntics Not drugs, alcohol, or even cigarettes like most politicians assume. In fact, some of the people were smokers and the money actually made them want to quit smoking. They were told they could spend the money on ANYTHING and they helped themselves and their children. They are expanding the program now because of the success. Giving them that money was actually cheaper than them remaining homeless longer. 3y
GingerAntics Some folks even chose to go back to school and finish high school or go to college because of the extra little bit of security the program gave them. Some of them had savings accounts for the first time ever. One woman, put a little bit of money away from her toddler to one day go to college. It was beautiful all the way around. We need more programs like that one. I was practically crying by the end of the video. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Yes we do! And I get really annoyed when politicians pick on the things people do buy. Cigarettes are an addiction for instance, people do spend money on that but it‘s very difficult to quit, especially without help or support, and when your under a lot of stress. Awhile ago there was a big deal made of people on food stamps buying steak or lobster, and that being expensive and therefore they must not need it if they can waste it⤵️ 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa ↪️ on high priced foods, so the politicians wanted some food items excluded. And I thought, geez, they might have skimped on their other food purchases for months to be able to have enough for that steak or shrimp or lobster, maybe it was a big anniversary or a child‘s college graduation, you might see it and disapprove, but it was probably a big special occasion for them that you now want to remove from ever happening again. So judgmental. 3y
GingerAntics 🙄 oh that drives me nuts. First of all, that‘s none of your business. Second of all, I‘d love to meet the people buying luxury food on food stamps. The average food stamp money is something like $3 a day for food. A DAY, not even a meal. It‘s ridiculous. I highly doubt anyone actually bought that stuff on food stamps. 3y
GingerAntics It is so judgemental. The idea that people on food stamps should only get flour and beans is disgusting. It‘s not even nutritionally sound and could easily kill some folks, never mind what it would do to growing children with such little nutrition. Then again, based on their actions and words, I firmly believe the mentality among politicians and the rich is that poor people‘s lives have no value and thus they can just die. 3y
GingerAntics That‘s one way to raise the national average income without having to do ANYTHING. 🙄 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics That‘s basically the history of treating the poor problem in the US that I‘m reading in this book now. And that was their thought for some of the poor, so much so that they sterilized a bunch so they wouldn‘t have children to repeat the problem and help the poor to “die out” quicker. 🙄 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I think that‘s what the Senate thinks now, thus bailing out the business that fly and cater to them, but not the individual humans. 3y
GingerAntics Exactly!!! Yet people these days tell me I‘m ridiculous for thinking they want anyone to die. 🙄 Idiots. We don‘t have official eugenics anymore, but there are still forced sterilisation and similar programs. It‘s disgusting. America is stuck in a stagnant cycle of BS, hatred and prejudice because conservatives somehow believe anything new is against their god‘s will. 🙄 I can‘t even. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics I feel that way about COVID, if they are rich they have the best testing and experimental limited treatments, and best doctors, etc...they know they‘ll be fine. But for everyone else, they either don‘t care or honestly don‘t understand how big that gap in care is. 3y
GingerAntics 100% agree with that. 3y
Weaponxgirl @GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa the worst part about blaming poor people is that research has shown that they are often actually better at managing their money. They make it go so much further than it should ever have to but of course there is always a limit. 3y
GingerAntics That‘s actually been proven now? I‘ve been saying that for years. I went to college with a few kids that were definitely privileged. They would frequently complain about how they never had enough money, even though we had all the same bills and some of us had less than half the money. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl I believe that, when you have less of a resource, chances are you get good at stretching it! 3y
Weaponxgirl @GingerAntics I can‘t remember the source or where I read it but it was from a poverty campaigner. Sorry I can‘t be specific. 3y
GingerAntics @Weaponxgirl that‘s totally cool! I believe it anyhow, because I‘ve experienced it for myself. Sadly, no amount of evidence will make the rich lawmakers who are all about blaming poor people believe it‘s true. Their loss, really. 3y
Weaponxgirl @GingerAntics I know it from personal experience myself. At one point in my life people were shocked that I could live independently on my own on what I earned. The problem is I‘ve found that people seem to think that when you‘ve proven against all the odds you can get by on so little they then see how far they can squeeze you before you break. It‘s a horrible cycle followed by lawmakers 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @Weaponxgirl Yes, exactly! If you can managed to survive on this paltry amount, then obviously we are giving you too much 🙄 it‘s ridiculous, it‘s like the old witch trials, if you float you are obviously guilty, if you drown you‘re innocent. Either way, you lose. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics @Weaponxgirl And I think the theme here, should be at least, unless you come from inherited wealth (and sometimes even then), everyone falls on hard time and needs services at some point or another. Usually because jobs don‘t pay a livable income to start either, and companies are doing the same thing as government, if you can survive on what we pay you, we are paying you too much. 3y
Weaponxgirl @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I probably screwed myself over at the time as I didn‘t apply for any benefits I was quite probably entitled to. The system is incredibly inflexible and made as hard as possible. If you did overtime it had to be declared which would be fine if they wouldn‘t then over or underpay at different dates to leave you in a constant state of anxiety. I was also only looking after myself which must easier than if 3y
Weaponxgirl You have children to look after. Honestly I‘m awed by any parent who manages on low income. 3y
GingerAntics @Weaponxgirl @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I know exactly what you mean. Apparently I can get health care now that we‘ve moved, but I have had such a horrible time previously and I‘ve gone this far without medical care, part of me just feels like there‘s no point. I‘ll deal with it, and I feel better on my own. At least then I have no false sense of security. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I‘m sure I‘m not the only one to feel this way. 3y
GingerAntics @Weaponxgirl @Riveted_Reader_Melissa of course, there is also the stigma of needing aid. You need it, you apply for it, you have it, you‘re somehow less than. I completely agree, though. If you can care for a child within this system, you deserve total recognition. 3y
GingerAntics @Riveted_Reader_Melissa I absolutely agree. If you can survive, then somehow you have too much money. You should‘ve be complaining and we shouldn‘t have to pay you that much. 3y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa @GingerAntics Yes, I agree...the stigma is horrible, and like @Weaponxgirl said it keeps many from even applying when they probably should, and then feeling bad or guilty when they do. I know I put it off as long as I could, and then I felt guilty for receiving it. It takes a lot of mental energy to square all that and we really shouldn‘t make it that difficult. 3y
34 likes36 comments
quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

And because it‘s often done by algorithms now, there‘s less heart involved, and most likely more bias...unfortunately all algorithms are built by humans.

quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

quote
Riveted_Reader_Melissa
post image

blurb
BeththeBookDragon
post image

Yes. A thousand times yes.

booksandsympathy 👏👏👏 5y
41 likes1 stack add1 comment