[X city] has poor paper-based public services. Should it: A) Invest in digital government to improve service deliver B) Enact systemic reforms to change how and what society provides C) A+B D) None of the above https://medium/p/47434acb50a8 Structural changes to the economy, polarized politics and increasing job loss due to automation and AI eating into white collar employment is going to put increasing pressure on cities and state governments. These choices arent theoretical nor can they be put off for mayors and governors -- unlike Congressional action on various issues. Critics of civic apps that improve upon bad government software and give modern interfaces to onerous public services [theatlanticcities/technology/2014/01/what-really-happens-when-you-sign-food-stamps/8094/] like Evgeny Morozov suggest that such efforts just make bad laws more tolerable, serving to perpetuate a neoliberal regime where paperwork equals precarity equals a barrier to decent life. If youre a poor person trapped in such a system, however, advocating for Option B is challenging, at best, particularly when you really need Option A, now. What this all too often looks like in practice, sadly, is an error message for the poor. nytimes/2014/01/04/opinion/an-error-message-for-the-poor.html …one privilege the insured and well-off have is to excuse the terrible quality of services the government routinely delivers to the poor, wrote Ezra Klein, earlier this winter. [washingtonpost/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/25/obamacares-problems-go-much-deeper-than-the-web-site/] Too often, the press ignores—or simply never knows—the pain and trouble of interfacing with government bureaucracies that the poor struggle with daily. That can allow the problems in those bureaucracies to fester. Ambitious political reforms that would seek to change the laws of San Francisco or another state or city in ways that provide social services or aid without proof of citizenship, documentation or effort to gain employment, may find, however, that its far easier to write a biting editorial or book review that it is to lead a movement for even a modest reform. While that doesnt absolve people in charge of policy from advocating for broader changes that lighten the burden and pushing for social justice, I find it hard to avoid that conclusion that its worth it for city governments to invest time, money and effort into improving public services that face the poor with the best tools city governments can find. What about you?
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 04:03:27 +0000