The Corporate Surveillance Complex

Originally Posted by hazel Where I live, the parking meters in town have gone over exclusively to smartphone activation. You can't any longer use a card, let alone cash. So those old people who are not too good on their feet and don't know how to use a smartphone, can't go into town to do their shopping any more. It seems they don't want our sort around there any more; it brings the tone down. It's blatant discrimination and I think it ought to be illegal.

I also think that should be illegal, and have difficulty imagining that is actually true. Not everyone has a smartphone and service and a data plan and an OS that supports their app, etc, so not allowing any way to pay for street parking at all? Seems absurd.

edit: after posting that, I had to look it up for myself, and based on your posted location I'm guessing it's this: https://www.harrow.gov.uk/parking-pe...king-charges/2
You can pay by voice telephone, SMS, or on a website, or with cash at any shop with a "paypoint" sign. Not just the android/ios/windows apps.

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs They're going to use "the incoming IP address" for the same reason that they consider "the incoming phone number (caller-ID)" and "known or approximate geographic locations." And you are the one they're constantly trying to protect. In spite of these efforts, banks around the world lose enormous amounts of money every single day to "fraud," and they will never get that money back.

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs The banking industry knows that it loses millions of dollars, every day, due to fraud.

The "banking industry" makes a fortune and its losses are what amounts to pocket change. Like any corporate concern, such losses are factored in and costs covered by banking charges. There was a time when banks paid you some reasonable interest for your money - those days are long gone unless you are among the wealthy minority - the majority get screwed and end up in debt, paying obscene interest.

You're now officially an apologist for Microsoft, Oracle, VMWare and the fat cat bankers.

“Huh? Officially an apologist?” I think not.

Over these years, I’ve personally encountered plenty of the ways in which people contrive to rip each other off, and I have (programmatically) countered many of them. But it never ends. People will always invest far more ingenuity in crime than in trying to make an honest living. And “banking,” while utterly necessary, is probably not a business you today want to find yourself in.

In my growing-up days, the charging of excessive rates of interest was called “usury,” and it was a crime. No longer.

But we also still had the (Depression-inspired) “Glass-Steagall Act,” which clearly separated “banking,” “finance,” and “insurance.” It thereby created a sturdy “three-legged stool” that stood firm for many decades … until subsequent legislation toppled it.

But the “modern” industry has now completely forgotten the mission to provide affordable financing, and to be content with a modest but predictable steady profit. They have ceased to be the financial resource that they were once required to be. And, they daily expose themselves to risks that they didn’t used to face.

Originally Posted by sundialsvcs In my growing-up days, the charging of excessive rates of interest was called “usury,” and it was a crime. No longer. But we also still had the (Depression-inspired) “Glass-Steagall Act,” which clearly separated “banking,” “finance,” and “insurance.” It thereby created a sturdy “three-legged stool” that stood firm for many decades … until subsequent legislation toppled it. But the “modern” industry has now completely forgotten the mission to provide affordable financing, and to be content with a modest but predictable steady profit. They have ceased to be the financial resource that they were once required to be. And, they daily expose themselves to risks that they didn’t used to face.

Glass-Steagall should be re-instated, as originally written, no changes, and then there should be a criminal investigation into those behind its repeal.

Isn't at least one of the Prime Movers tying this all together that cash is all but untraceable and institutions (especially in the burgeoning surveillance society) prefer it otherwise?

Originally Posted by enorbet Isn't at least one of the Prime Movers tying this all together that cash is all but untraceable and institutions (especially in the burgeoning surveillance society) prefer it otherwise?

Precisely. We're clearly heading slowly towards the eventual elimination of cash. Once we reach that theoretical point, all transactions will be under corporate/government surveillance. When that time comes, we will no doubt be spun the story of cash being used primarily for criminal activity. The covid 19 farce was the ideal accelerator for this. It allowed cashless payment systems to be enforced in many areas, because dirty money carries germs. Never mind that you could simply wash your hands.

But I doubt it will be so simple. You would likely see an increase in the use of cryptocurrency?

Uhhh, forgive me _blackhole_, but it occurs to me that..

1) Despite early concerns, Covid was later found to not be transmissible on surfaces, especially outside. We washed mailed packages, for example, but only for a short time until proven trivial.

2) Farce? - Given the numbers of deaths and long term disfunction are you really doubting Covid warranted emergency measures? In my view although there was some greed and withholding of information that was actually farcical, it seemed to me to be a fringe percentage, one that seems to exist in every major event. Hospitals and Doctors and Nurses "on the ground",. the bulk of those actually dealing with illness, were open and earnest.

You are forgiven.

More than 80% of US currency in circulation is 100-dollar bill, but people who spend cash mainly tend to use smaller bills. I think US needs to start printing $1000 bill again; there's been a lot of inflation since it was last printed and $100 is worth less than 10x it was back when it was. Especially now that personal checks are going out of favor.

Personally, I expect that bigger things, like “BRICS,” are going to start splashing very cold water “across the bow.”

”Trillions of ‘Dollars’” in ”national debt?” C’mon … “this ain’t nobody’s ‘debt.’” This is just you, magically “borrowing from” yourself, and just expecting the rest of the world to take it.

This is you playin’ Rumpelstiltskin. And your “gold” is smelly straw.

Is this a linux forum thread or a conspiracy flame competition? Apparently a flame thread, so I will try to win it.
Aliens! U.S. has been in contact with extra solar/ extra dimensional diplomats since Roswell incident. It was the aliens who gave us computer chips and herded down this technological trail of tears with the ultimate goal of enslaving us to an immortal AI of their design and controllable by them, because like the Gremlins in the movies or larry nivens three fingered gripping hand characters in literature; we are dangerously immature monsters that with opposable thumbs, and (just barely enough) intelligence to use them will unavoidably do horrible damage with technology. Enslaving us to benevolent dictator for (eternal) life is both the cheapest and least ethically distasteful way to address this issue effectively.
I am sincerely hoping this is the case, otherwise the the technology will inevitably be used to enslave us, but dictators will be human and incredibly evil.

Well, biker_rat, this is the General section, non-specific to Linux but then again all serious skeptics realize JFK Jr. crashed because he believed the Earth is a sphere curving away from his flight path. What is less known is that he was saved from a watery death by interstellar lizard people (the aquatic variety) who plan to transport him via an invisible UFO, sorry...UAP, to wrest back the 2024 Presidential election on Inaugural Day to MEGA (Make Earth Great Again). First order of Legislation - Destroy all fake vaccines and re-institute the waving of rubber chickens through burning pork rind smoke over sick people while chanting "The Wheels on the Bus"