For Million of Americans, Unemployment Benefits Require Facial Recognition Scanning (cnn.com) 152
Millions of Americans "are being instructed to use ID.me, along with its facial recognition software, to get their unemployment benefits," reports CNN. The software compares their photo ID with a selfie video they take on their phone with the company's software — but some privacy advocates are concerned:
A rapidly growing number of U.S. states, including Colorado, California and New York, turned to ID.me in hopes of cutting down on a surge of fraudulent claims for state and federal benefits that cropped up during the pandemic alongside a tidal wave of authentic unemployment claims. As of this month, 27 states' unemployment agencies had entered contracts with ID.me, according to the company, with 25 of them already using its technology. ID.me said it is in talks with seven more...
The company's rapid advance at state unemployment agencies marks the latest chapter in the story of facial recognition software's spread across the United States. It also highlights how this controversial technology gained a foothold during the pandemic and now appears destined to remain part of our lives for the foreseeable future...
Several ID.me users told CNN Business about problems they had verifying their identities with the company, which ranged from the facial recognition technology failing to recognize their face to waiting for hours to reach a human for a video chat after encountering problems with the technology. A number of people who claim to have had issues with ID.me have taken to social media to beg the company for help with verification, express their own concerns about its face-data collection or simply rant, often in response to ID.me's own posts on Twitter... From ID.me's perspective, its service is making it easier for a wide range of people to access essential government services, as it avoids the common practice of using information gleaned from data brokers and credit bureaus as a means of checking identities. The company said this lets it give a green light to those who don't have a credit history, or may have changed their name, for instance — people who might otherwise have more trouble getting verified.
However, it doesn't sit well with employee and privacy advocates and civil rights groups interviewed by CNN Business. They have concerns about the facial recognition technology itself and for the ID.me verification process's reliance on access to a smartphone or computer and the internet, which may be out of reach for the people to whom unemployment dollars are most critical... ID.me said it does not sell user data — which includes biometric and related information such as selfies people upload, data related to facial analyses, and recordings of video chats users participate in with ID.me — but it does keep it. Biometric data, like the facial geometry produced from a user's selfie, may be kept for years after a user closes their account... In March, ID.me announced raising $100 million in funding from investors including hedge fund Viking Global Investors and CapitalG, which is Google parent company Alphabet's independent growth fund. With that funding round, ID.me said it was valued at $1.5 billion... "We're verifying more than 1% of the American adult population each quarter, and that's starting to compress more to like 45 or 50 days," Hall said. The company has more than 50 million users, he said, and signs up more than 230,000 new ones each day.
CNN also quotes a man who complains the state never gave him an option. "If I wanted unemployment, I had no choice but to do this."
The company's rapid advance at state unemployment agencies marks the latest chapter in the story of facial recognition software's spread across the United States. It also highlights how this controversial technology gained a foothold during the pandemic and now appears destined to remain part of our lives for the foreseeable future...
Several ID.me users told CNN Business about problems they had verifying their identities with the company, which ranged from the facial recognition technology failing to recognize their face to waiting for hours to reach a human for a video chat after encountering problems with the technology. A number of people who claim to have had issues with ID.me have taken to social media to beg the company for help with verification, express their own concerns about its face-data collection or simply rant, often in response to ID.me's own posts on Twitter... From ID.me's perspective, its service is making it easier for a wide range of people to access essential government services, as it avoids the common practice of using information gleaned from data brokers and credit bureaus as a means of checking identities. The company said this lets it give a green light to those who don't have a credit history, or may have changed their name, for instance — people who might otherwise have more trouble getting verified.
However, it doesn't sit well with employee and privacy advocates and civil rights groups interviewed by CNN Business. They have concerns about the facial recognition technology itself and for the ID.me verification process's reliance on access to a smartphone or computer and the internet, which may be out of reach for the people to whom unemployment dollars are most critical... ID.me said it does not sell user data — which includes biometric and related information such as selfies people upload, data related to facial analyses, and recordings of video chats users participate in with ID.me — but it does keep it. Biometric data, like the facial geometry produced from a user's selfie, may be kept for years after a user closes their account... In March, ID.me announced raising $100 million in funding from investors including hedge fund Viking Global Investors and CapitalG, which is Google parent company Alphabet's independent growth fund. With that funding round, ID.me said it was valued at $1.5 billion... "We're verifying more than 1% of the American adult population each quarter, and that's starting to compress more to like 45 or 50 days," Hall said. The company has more than 50 million users, he said, and signs up more than 230,000 new ones each day.
CNN also quotes a man who complains the state never gave him an option. "If I wanted unemployment, I had no choice but to do this."
New Requirements (Score:4)
CNN also quotes a man who complains the state never gave him an option. "If I wanted unemployment, I had no choice but to do this."
So a requirement now for getting unemployment benefits is having either a smartphone or computer with internet access?
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Get used to it. Want to use you credit card anywhere and you credit card provider will call you and ask you to point you phone at your face to prove who you are.
Credit card companies are required by law to ensure those who present cards for credit are the person entitled to do so with the card.
That remote authorisation method is the surest way to achieve that. You attempt to make purchase online or offline, they get the credit card details, they contract you via phone, you answer activate the app and point
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Look at it the other way. The only way you can vote or be part of society is if you have a constant tracking device. Now you also need your face in who knows who's secure (lmao) database to get society's benefits. You're not denied your benefits or right to vote, you just gotta put these chains on for us to get them.
See, people predicted this long ago. That once the cat is out the bag, there is no going back. Once facial recognition, data and tracking are available to everyone, including governments, no one
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The only way you can vote [...] is if you have a constant tracking device
Say what now? What kind of tinfoil hat shit is this?
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You mean Reagan phone since the Lifeline Assistance program [wikipedia.org] which funds the free phones was created under Reagan. Or maybe it should be called Bush phone since Bush expanded the program to include cell phones.
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It's identical to doing it from home or from the public library
The public library is closed, thanks to Covid.
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Mines open, but the computers don't have cameras.
ID.me? (Score:2)
The rest of the world uses ID.everybody.
Facial Scan for Placing them In Crime Scene (Score:2)
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If someone scans your face, they can implicate you in almost any crime.
Right. Except it seems clear on the order of crystal you've not considered the ubiquitous drivers' licenses and state IDs.
Need id.me to cancel childcare tax credit advance (Score:2, Interesting)
What's the point of Real-ID? (Score:2)
I recently went on line to "upgrade" my CA driver license to a REAL-ID version.
In order to prove your identity, they ask you to show another identity document: one from a list of possible identity documents, like a passport.
Missing from the list of identity documents? Another REAL-ID card, like, for example a Global Entry card. What's the point of REAL-ID if you can't actually use it as an ID card?
TOS (Score:2)
I have a problem with making people agree to a 3rd party's TOS to use a government service.
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Hey, I bet you do have a job for them? I mean, if you tell them to get one, I guess there must be plenty of jobs to go around.
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Where I live, every grocery store, every restaurant, every shop, has a big "WE ARE HIRING" sign by their front entrance. Most explicitly state a no-experience needed starting wage of at least $15/hr, and some offer $18.
The unemployed need to get back to work. If there is no job available in their area, then get on the bus Gus.
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Try to do the math. When getting to and from the job costs more than the job pays, it's sensible to not do it.
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When getting to and from the job costs more than the job pays, it's sensible to not do it.
Then don't work. It's a free country.
But don't expect others to subsidize your lifestyle choice.
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If you worked then you paid into unemployment. Therefore you are more than entitled to it. Did you send back your stimulus checks as well?
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As GP said:
Then don't work. It's a free country.
But don't expect others to subsidize your lifestyle choice.
I know someone who turned down a very good high pay job offer because she was getting an extremely generous unemployment check and has one more month left on her benefits. Personally, I don't care if she has to flip burgers for minimum wage when it runs out now.
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Try to do the math. When getting to and from the job costs more than the job pays, it's sensible to not do it.
Funny, they were doing it prior to all this just fine.
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We have very different definitions of "fine".
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Yeah, I guess one of the lowest unemployment figures of our history, along with wages that had the median household income climbing nicely since the end of the great recession.
Terrible, just terrible, right?
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Unemployment means jack shit. Realize that back when it was still ok to own people, unemployment among the black population was virtually nonexistent.
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Completely non sequitur.
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Ok, if reading comprehension is beyond your capabilities, I'm done here. I don't have time to teach the basics.
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It's not just public facing either. There's a severe labor shortage for most manufacturing and logistic companies as well.
Which is terrifying.
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There's manufacturing now in the US?
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There's manufacturing now in the US?
The decline of manufacturing in America is a myth.
America manufactures more than ever.
What has declined is not manufacturing but manufacturing employment. We are making more with less.
Manufacturing in the United States [wikipedia.org]
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Great, now we have even more crap on the supply side and even less money on the demand side to sell it to.
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America has a trade deficit of more than $600B/yr.
That is the difference between what we consume and what we make.
The belief that there is surplus supply chasing insufficient demand is nonsense. That is the opposite of reality.
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That's the difference between what you import and what you export. Very different.
Imports do not mean consumption. If I import fuel to run my trucks for my logistics company, these are imports. Are they consumption? I hope we can agree they ain't.
But I agree on one thing, if I close that logistics business because nobody buys the crap I transport, the imports of fuel will go down.
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If I import fuel to run my trucks for my logistics company, these are imports. Are they consumption? I hope we can agree they ain't.
What? How is consuming fuel not consumption?
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Consumption, in an economic sense, means that you use a product or services without creating another product or service. Because if you do, all you really do is to transfer one product into another one that still needs to be sold. That's why it's not exactly consumption for the economy if you use one product to create another one. If you buy a car so you can provide cab services, all you essentially do is to transfer one product into another one, which again needs selling. You just upped the ante, so to spe
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Just $2.3T worth
https://www.macrotrends.net/co... [macrotrends.net]
They are getting back to work (Score:2)
As for needing to get back to work, like I said, they are [cnbc.com].
The idea that people were taking time off is a lie. What actually happened is that when the restaurants closed people couldn't just go on unemploymen
Re: They are getting back to work (Score:2)
No it is not unemployment but the minimum wage that numerically inflated wages while reducing the buying power of that wage. Higher wages eats capital and thereby reduces production and makes things more expensive while disproportionately hurting the poor.
When you force an increase in wages, things get produced less and become more expensive. Why is that hard to understand? Sure, you get more cash in hand, but what use is that if the things you have to buy got more expensive. Rent is higher because landlord
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So what you are saying is that if we reduce wages, the economy will improve.
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So what you are saying is that if we reduce wages, the economy will improve.
Who is "we" and how are the wages "reduced"?
The economy will perform best when wages are set at the market-clearing level that matches job seekers to job offers.
Right now, that isn't happening in most places, so wages will likely rise.
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Well, minimum wage could be reduced, which judging by comments will see wages drop as some businesses only offer the minimum.
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Wages will only drop where there are more available workers than jobs, which is pretty much nowhere.
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.Where I am, even with businesses screaming for workers, they don't want to pay for them, which is why the minimum wage recently went up again as well as the servers exception being removed.
Also with inflation ticking up, the governments might stop propping up the economy. A raise in interest rates and less money being printed might well see the employment boom die.
Re: They are getting back to work (Score:2)
Which is more important, the amount of your wage or the buying power of that wage? Would you rather be paid $100 a month and able to afford rent, or $1000 and unable to afford rent? A fool will take the $1000 every time, but the $100 option is better. Increasing the minimum wage does nothing to make things affordable to the poor. It actually makes things more expensive while giving them the illusion of being paid more.
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Well right now it seems that it is being paid a thousand a month while rent is $2000 a month. As long as the essentials such as housing, food, transportation etc are going up faster then wages, raising the minimum wage is one solution.
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So you're saying if things got built or manufactured less, and became more expensive, the economy will improve? So you're saying if you made it harder to pitch business ideas to investors because the rate of return will be less in comparison to risk, the economy will improve?
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Well, with raising minimum wages here, the economy is doing very well, including manufacturing though a lot of it is house building, especially compared to back when it was frozen. Seems that if people can afford the basics and have some money left over, they buy stuff, usually locally if they're still on the poor side and can't afford to travel or buy expensive imports.
I'm of the opinion that the economy is driven by people buying stuff, not much point in manufacturing stuff if no one can afford the stuff.
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The idea that people were taking time off is a lie
Horseshit. Tell that to all the small businesses that can't find employees.
Garbage Takes for 15$/hr (Score:2)
Where I live, every grocery store, every restaurant, every shop, has a big "WE ARE HIRING" sign by their front entrance. Most explicitly state a no-experience needed starting wage of at least $15/hr, and some offer $18.
The unemployed need to get back to work. If there is no job available in their area, then get on the bus Gus.
Oh I see. And people should be forced to move where you are because you need things and services and there are jobs. So, to you, people are nothing more than legos to snap into job slots. Sounds trumpian.
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it's almost as if you believev life hasn't always been that way: people moving to where opportunities are.
Its almost as if you believe the modern world has existed for 50k years and the new paradigm with computers and planes and vehicular travel doesn't give you the means to do move than move where you need the work.
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"The unemployed need to get back to work. "
Do you have any statistics that back up this claim that the people who were laid off are just sitting around deliberately avoiding looking for another job? Heck, what states are still providing unemployment benefits without proof of job-seeking?
I find it very telling that in articles where they try to talk up the idea of the extra benefits letting people choose not to work they don't even provide anecdotes of that, but they do provide plenty of anecdotes of people
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What else are they suppose to do?
Here are some options:
1, Get a bicycle
2. Join a carpool
3. Find a job closer to home
4. Move
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None of those answers would have worked for me in the DC metro area. The jobs were primarily inside the beltway, and the closer you got to that, the more expensive the homes/rent. About 25 years ago, I asked a real estate agent to get me within 5 miles of work...I was 15 mile away at the time, and told him I could add ~$75k to the equity I had in my home. It simply wasn't possible without moving into something half the size of my townhouse. I could have looked for another job, but those would likely hav
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There are tons of jobs around. Fast food places ( just one segment ) are offering signing bonuses, ffs.
Anyone who doesn't have a job right now simply doesn't want one, it's that simple.
No, there are not tons of jobs around. All those illegals are taking them. At least that's what Republicans like Raphael Cruz keep saying.
It's the same reason we're having a resurgence of covid. Illegals are bringing it across the border.
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Well no; the resurgence of c19 was expected by anyone who understands respiratory illnesses and how they relate to the weather.
HOWEVER, you can't be "pro vaccine" and "pro lockdown" while at the very same time be supportive of what this administration is doing on our southern border. It shows you just how unseriously the Biden admin takes covid.
Those that want you to be scared of covid take it very lightly themselves. That should be a huge red flag to anyone paying attention.
As far as your rather meaningl
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What is happening at the southern border?
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Still closed.
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Heh. closed. You have a strange definition of closed.
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Pictures I've seen show it with most lanes closed and the news says it is only open to essential traffic. Not sure if there are loopholes like here that allow foreigners from America to ignore the laws.
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No, there are not tons of jobs around. All those illegals are taking them. At least that's what Republicans like Raphael Cruz keep saying.
It's the same reason we're having a resurgence of covid. Illegals are bringing it across the border.
Oddly enough, the people coming across the border are generally looking for work. Where as citizens who just made it through the last year on unemployment/welfare are quite content not going back to work. There really are plenty of jobs, you just have to want to work in order to actually get one.
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Ok, you didn't really understand the idea why people get a job. They don't need an occupation, most of them are quite capable of occupying themselves with something.
They need money.
A job that costs me more money to do it than I get out of is one where I'm getting richer by not doing it.
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Why exactly?
Our economy needs more money on the demand side. I'd really love to invest into something worthwhile, and a lot of people with money like me would, if there was simply something sensible to invest in. But to invest your money in something, you need to have something being produced that is in demand.
Demand depends on two things: First, desire and second, means to satisfy that desire. Now, desire is of course limitless, but the means to satisfy this are not. And this is where these people come in.
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Our economy needs more money on the demand side.
There's not enough demand for cars, wood, restaurants (due to lack of servers), etc., to satisfy you? They're certainly is enough to have driven the cost up. The demand side is doing just fine, we just need to get people back to work.
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Work is the necessary evil to money. Not an end to itself.
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WTF does that have to do with what you said above, or my reply?
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we just need to get people back to work.
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Genius idea by Trump but Biden is an idiot for keeping it going. Right.
Re: bad but not so bad (Score:2)
If they live at home, with everything else being taken care of, then yes, they can.
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I was surviving on 300/wk a recently as 10 yrs ago, in NY. That is what happens when you take the first thing that comes along because you have bills to pay... you get taken advantage of. Thank God I now have a sane (different) employer.
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If it's that great a deal, why don't you take it?
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Oh wow a $300 bonus to make shit wages and get yelled at by Karens all day when their food doesn’t come out fast enough. This is a market correction at work. Wasn’t this extra unemployment money started by the Trump administration?
Re:bad but not so bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, but meanwhile they have a right to money that has been allocated for them *by law*. You might think that's bad policy, but reshaping policy *by bad implementation* is an even worse idea.
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"Just using what's available to them by law" re tax loopholes: Good, totally fair game
"Just using what's available to them by law" re unemployment: Bad, totally scum
The existence of loopholes, which are specific faults in the tax code favoring certain kinds of individuals over others, is a bad thing.
Private individuals taking advantage of such loopholes is inevitable and by definition perfectly legal, although not actually a good thing.
Private individuals conspiring with politicians to intentionally put loopholes into the tax code is a bad thing.
Public officials doing a crappy job when it benefits people they don't like is a bad thing.
I hope that clears things up for y
Re:bad but not so bad (Score:5, Insightful)
1980 called they want their Welfare Queen back
Oh, yeah that was just Reagan lying out his ass trying to claim that one huckster represented millions of Americans who really do need help
And... Workfare was implemented in the 90's, which compels welfare recipients to gain job skills and employment before they get forced off of welfare
Plain facts are that people need help during this pandemic and pointing out a few cases of fraud does not relieve the state from providing assistance.
Who knows, maybe some tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy should be investigated for fraud or abandoned
Reagan wasn't just lying (Score:3, Insightful)
And when people are dog whistling to you, you should get mad. Because they think you're stupid and easily manipulated by emotional appeals.
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the phrase "Wellfare Queen" was carefully chosen to invoke homosexuals and black people, two big bugaboos. It's a Dog Whistle. And when people are dog whistling to you, you should get mad. Because they think you're stupid and easily manipulated by emotional appeals.
Ever wonder when your ignorant thoughts will NOT be lead by racism on a leash? "Queen" used to refer to the one of the most powerful and respected positions in an entire country. And here you are, assuming that's some kind of attack on gays and blacks.
Nevermind the fact that the single-mother rate went from 20% decades ago to over 60% today. Forget the fact that single women with multiple kids from multiple fathers are celebrating today, PROUD of the fact that they're now receiving child tax credits tha
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So after Reagan and plenty of Republicans in national and state government, the single-mother rate went up? Sounds like you cannot blame that on government policies. Democrat and Republican presidents and governors and legislators have scaled back on welfare, put in more controls against fraud, and it really has not done much.
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I'm going to borrow that bit of grammatical wizardry--if you don't mind.
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Can you provide an iota of evidence that queen referred to homosexuals? I've never heard of such a thing, and my brief google turned up nothing.
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"Queen" used to refer to the one of the most powerful and respected positions in an entire country.
The queen is still our ceremonial figurehead here in Westminster parliamentary Canada. Given the perks her representative gets a case could be made that she is indeed a welfare queen. https://nationalpost.com/news/... [nationalpost.com]
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The problem with "welfare queen" is that it posits that everyone on welfare is abusing it. Which makes it easier to get social acceptance for draconian measures against a group of people ill-equipped to deal with them.
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the phrase "Wellfare Queen" was carefully chosen to invoke homosexuals and black people, two big bugaboos. It's a Dog Whistle. And when people are dog whistling to you, you should get mad. Because they think you're stupid and easily manipulated by emotional appeals.
There was no "dog whistle". Or if you want to get all meta, "dog whistle" is a dog whistle to get folks like you all riled up.
If you can hear a whistle, then you are the dog. It's you and your party who are obsessed with race.
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A few cases, huh? And what data do you have to back up that claim?
Here's a survey of currently unemployed people:
https://www.axios.com/high-unemployment-insurance-people-reject-jobs-9e426791-65b6-453b-9803-81aa3d0ca7e7.html
"Of those actively collecting unemployment benefits, 29% said they turned down job offers during the pandemic. In response to a follow-up question, 45% of that group said they turned down jobs specifically because of the generosity of the benefits."
"About 1.8 million out-of-work American
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>>A few cases, huh? And what data do you have to back up that claim?
Sure, if you consider what I said...
"Plain facts are that people need help during this pandemic and pointing out a few cases of fraud does not relieve the state from providing assistance."
And, if you had Read the Fucking Article, they gave exactly one example:
Theodore Taylor was pretty surprised when he received a tax document recently from Ohio's unemployment agency showing that he had been paid $1,300 in benefits last [cnn.com]
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It's particular bad because of the unexpected rise in unemployment claims. Problem in California because there were not enough government employees to handle the huge influx of calls, so people would be denied claims for a trivial paperwork error but it would take weeks or months to get it sorted out. Then the grumbling would be about terrible governor, though no Republican alternative is even remotely likely to double the workforce for "welfare" even though it's actually unemployment insurance paid for by
Re:bad but not so bad (Score:4, Informative)
UE's effect on the labor shortage is greatly overblown. Not that it doesn't exist or having an effect but it is cut down to $300 a week which is ending in less that 60 days and many states have cut their state benefits as well. $300 Unemployment Benefit Has ‘Small, But Noticeable’ Effect On Labor Shortage, Fed Paper Finds [forbes.com]
Most of it is a demand for better worker conditions.
What Does A Worker Want? What The Labor Shortage Really Tells Us [forbes.com]
First, stagnant wages have been a major problem for decades. To put things in perspective, in 1968, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. In 2021 dollars, the equivalent federal minimum wage would need to be $12.38. But instead, it’s only $7.25. So even before the coronavirus hit, workers were already being underpaid. Yet they had little leverage to demand higher wages.
Second, workers want better working conditions. Remember when Jimmy Johns asked its low-wage sandwich shop and delivery workers to sign unreasonable non-compete agreements? How about Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, where the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that employers can force employees into individual arbitration (as opposed to taking collective action) to resolve employment disputes?
Third, workers want a better work-life balance and scheduling flexibility. Thanks to the coronavirus forcing many businesses to offer telecommuting, remote workers are starting to realize that having greater work flexibility is possible. So workers are starting to expect the option for remote work. And if they can’t get it, they’re quitting
Fourth, there are child and family care responsibilities. Many people want to return to the workforce, but can’t because they have a child or family member to care for. They want a job that allows them the flexibility to take time away from work to care for a child or family member. And if this isn’t possible, they need schools or daycares to open so they can go to work while their children are properly supervised.
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Second: Unionize then. Otherwise if OSHA and Fair Labor laws are being followed then you have no excuse for holding out your hand for free money from unemployment when offered work.
Third: Fair, but not all jobs are nice little remo
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The US is an incredible experiment in social engineering: most of the population lives in a prison country run by a corporate plutocracy, with subpar access to basic health coverage and social security the rest of the developed world has been enjoying for decade, believing the social elevator still works when it has stopped decades ago, and they'll go to any length to defend the system and justify their being treated like shit. It never ceases to amaze me...
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What about those that don't like paying for it? I don't pay in the states, but here in the UK I can easily end up paying for biometric ID installation. I don't see why I should a) pay any money towards benefits that are verified by biometric ID b) pay for the database which makes it easy to identify myself and my family as targets for kidnapping (since we aren't getting any benefits - we must be relatively rich).
That's before we even discuss that most of the people getting unemployment a) already paid for
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It seems to me that everyone is overlooking an available solution to this privacy issue, that anyone can use, and it is fairly straightforward:
Get a job.
How does me getting a job (especially when I already have one) solve the problem of other people accepting biometric ID and thus endangering me? What if they don't care about my safety? It's about as sensible an idea as shooting the people that are proposing biometric ID. In fact stupider, since if you did shoot them all that might actually solve this.
*raises hand (Score:3)
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I don’t think you understand how unemployment benefits are calculated. Plus if you were working you paid for those benefits so you’re entitled to them.
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Unemployment is insurance, it is not free money or a hand out.
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Aren't you supposed to enter some kind of ID card number
A stolen ID number database and a 'bot coming in 3...2...1...
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I don't have a smartphone. I don't have a driver's license.
Only the wealthy can afford to not have a phone or car.