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Born Under Punchcards: When Govt Met Web 2.0
- rmason 3y agoI can echo a lot of what is discussed here about California is also true in Michigan. Michigan launched a then new system for unemployment right before the last recession. The goal was to reduce or eliminate fraudsters stealing billions of unemployment funds. The result was 10-15% of citizens were denied legitimate unemployment claims. They had a 2-4 year struggle to get reimbursed. Most lived on credit cards and to my knowledge were never reimbursed for the punishingly high interest paid on those cards much less their pain and suffering. But the system wide fraud was reduced, right? Actually no, it greatly increased costing the state tens of billions. Turns out the Russian fraudsters were able to play the system like a violin. ;<( The state is dependent on certain contractors and aren't willing to look outside the box. I told Michigan's then CIO that he needed to form a multi-state group and let their own developers build a new system. The people in the trenches at unemployment, not the bosses, should act as advisors so the new software solves the right problems. He listened politely, didn't raise objections, but I am sure never gave it serious thought.