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"Economists want real time data" --> "They are controlling our toughts!" 1) Please - enough with they hyperbole. Data is not the same as control. Yes - we sh

"Economists want real time data" --> "They are controlling our toughts!" 1) Please - enough with they hyperbole. Data is not the same as control. Yes - we should be wary, we don't want the government using our money to nudge us. At the same time we definitely want our governments using data to help us. There was a story in Canada about the government buying anonymoized cell tower data to understand our behaviours during a pandemic, misrepresented as 'they are trying to control us' - which is a disingenuous lie. Literally we're faced with a pandemic, we want to get rid of restrictions, the best way to do that is to know where and how COVID is spreading. We wouldn't bat an eye if some garbage advertising company bought that data. 2) "Government backed electronic money is utterly dystopian to me. I" Hyerbole. You already use 'Government Backed Electronic Money' - that the way it works and it works fine. It's 1000% better than 'Ponzi Scheme Money 80% Owned by Elon Musk' or 'Google Controlled Money'. And FYI - the 'Government Backed Money' we use today flows through VISA network and they are 100% selling every bit of your data to anyone who will buy. What you probably want is even stronger regulation of 'Gov Money' so that private entities cannot trace, transact or sell, i.e. even better privacy laws. And maybe some kind of legislation that forbids the Central Bank from doing anything other than targeting inflation/employment.

yucky 4y ago
>At the same time we definitely want our governments using data to help us. Speak for yourself, until the government shows it can be trusted. Their track record is awful, no thanks.
- jollybean 4y ago
  Again, hyperbolic nonsense. Your government has millions of people working for it that do innumerable things from water works, electricity distribution and regulation, policing, defence. You already depend on them intimately. The naive, glib view that somehow 'we can't trust government' is blatantly contradicted by your very existed. We want to make sure oversight and controls are there, but it's bonkers to suggest we don't want health officials to understand how this pandemic played out, so that they can figure out how to deal with the next one.

yucky 4y ago

>At the same time we definitely want our governments using data to help us. Speak for yourself, until the government shows it can be trusted. Their track record is awful, no thanks.

jollybean 4y ago
Again, hyperbolic nonsense. Your government has millions of people working for it that do innumerable things from water works, electricity distribution and regulation, policing, defence. You already depend on them intimately. The naive, glib view that somehow 'we can't trust government' is blatantly contradicted by your very existed. We want to make sure oversight and controls are there, but it's bonkers to suggest we don't want health officials to understand how this pandemic played out, so that they can figure out how to deal with the next one.