"[S]ince the dawn of the digital age, decision making in finance, employment, politics, health, and human services has undergone a revolutionary change. Forty years ago, nearly all of the management decisions that shape our lives- whether or not we are offered employment, a mortgage, insurance, credit, or a government service - were made by human beings. They often used actuarial processes that made them think more like computers than people, but human discretion still ruled the day. Today, we have ceded much of that decision- making power sophisticated machine power to sophisticated machines. Automated eligibility systems, ranking algorithms and predictive risk models control which neighbourhoods get policed, which families obtain needed resources, who is shortlisted for employment and who is investigated for fraud"
'[T]he system doesn't seem to be set up to help people. It seems to be set up to play gotcha', said Chris Holly. 'In our legal system, it is better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent man goes to jail. The modernization flipped that on its head'. Automated eligibility was based on the assumption that it is a metaphor for ten eligible applicants to be denied public benefits than for one ineligible person to receive them"
"[O]ur relationship to poverty in the United States has always been characterized by what sociologist Stanley Cohen calls "cultural Denial". Cultural denial is the process that allows us to know about cruelty, discrimination and repression, but never openly acknowledge it. It is how we come to know what not to know. The cultural design is not simply a personal or psychological attribute of individuals; it is a social process organised and supported by schooling, government, religion, media and other institutions.
