Never underestimate human incompetence.
When I was in retail sales for business machines (computers, scanners, cameras etc) a million years ago, one of the things I would demand from my team is that they would never lie to a customer about the capabilities of what they were selling - if they didn't know, try to find out and if it wasn't possible to find out, say "I am not sure at this moment, but leave your details and I will get back to you". The reason for this was because it is always those little "alternate facts" that come back to haunt, and it would be me who would have to deal with the unhappy customer.
Governments are more incompetent than the average person.
And then lie about it.
Let's be honest - it really isn't great they are discussing military operations on an unsecured messaging app, like teenage girls talking about the cute boy in biology class. But then, to keep lying about it, when they know that someone has those texts? Isn't that just asking for it to blow up?
I mean in the media as a scandal, not as an F-18 bombing run in the Middle East.
But they are doing something right for the American people. They are looking to demand that a US passport will be required in order to vote. That is great, as it stops the potential handful of fraudulent voters. Oh, and since only about 45% of Americans have a passport, it also stops all those without one from voting too. But, I would assume there is a law that if it is compulsory to have to vote, then it has to be provided, right?
- 165,000,000 passports need to be ordered.
- wait time is 4 - 6 weeks.
- Cost is $130
- Total cost of passports is 21.45 billion to order
- 20,437,207 applications were received in 2024
- 8x more resources are required to process them in a year
DOGE isn't going to be happy....
And in other news....
Papua New Guinea has banned Facebook.
That doesn't sound like news, does it? But it is. Because the reason for the block as stated by the Police Minister, is under anti-terrorism laws.
“The government has the responsibility to protect its citizens from harmful content and the spread of misinformation. This was a necessary step to evaluate our capabilities in maintaining public order.”
Now at this stage it is being labelled a test and it hasn't been well received, but I think "good on em" for banning that shit. What would be interesting if a country really had the balls to ban them all, unless they started paying their taxes in the country where it is earned. Not that I care about the tax part of it as much, but I think that for far too long, the mass media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and the like, have been able to operate in a grey area where they can financially benefit, but carry no responsibility for the impact of their products on users, or the communities that are heavily affected.
They are the big tobaccos of our time.
Would society be better if everyone stopped smoking?
It got me thinking about it a little about a world without mass social media, and I reckon it would be better for most people's experience. Yeah, the highest earners on the platform would lose out due to not being able to collect hundreds of millions of followers, but celebrity would become far more localised again, meaning that while earnings would go down for a few, many more would have an opportunity to make a space for themselves. Life becomes more personal again, more direct interaction, more conversation, rather than shouting into the void at strangers.
A bit more like Hive.
Just imagine the loss of revenue in the US if the data companies had to pay all of their taxes locally. The Googles, the Microsofts, the Metas and the Amazons - it would have an incredibly large impact on their earnings, which means, a massive impact on the ROI for investors.
The business world needs a proper shakeup.
And so do the governments.
Adjustments to both should be made to align them to the needs of the people, the needs of society, and humanity in general. They shouldn't be operating in ways that cost us in order to increase the wealth of the few - they should be working and facilitating to enable the best from the many. They aren't the stars, they are the tools.
But, we are all incompetent too.
And keep inviting the wrong people into our plans.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]