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Virginia Eubanks, Eubanks: Automating Inequality (Paperback, 2019, Picador) 4 stars

A powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination—and how technology affects civil and human rights and …

Chapter 1 cover some of the history of data-driven “means testing” for welfare benefit, including early uses of computing in the late 60s and early 70s. Was surprised to hear that it was Ross Perot’s software company that built the early versions. Dude literally became a tech billionaire helping strip poor people of money they desperately needed, and then eventually decided that qualified him to be president. Shit never changes.