Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: University-wide Finger
Message-ID: <8364@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Aug-87 02:18:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8364
Posted: Mon Aug  3 02:18:14 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Aug-87 02:18:14 EDT
References: <3601@watvlsi.waterloo.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 31

> It would make things a lot easier for everyone (except for
> illegal immigrants, welfare fakes, tax evaders, library book
> thiefs, wanted criminals, etc.).

Marijuana smokers, women who get abortions, store owners who open Sunday
in Ontario, newsmen working on stories critical of the government, members
of the Communist party (or the Socialist party, or the NDP...), anyone who
lies on his tax forms, anyone who ever gets a traffic ticket...

"I'm sorry, sir, your credit is no good -- you have an overdue library fine,
and Visa has cancelled your card because of this obvious dishonesty.  It's
really too bad that the library notice got lost in the mail, sir, but they
all say that..."

The idea would be reasonable if (a) governments never made unpopular and
unjust laws, (b) neither governments nor corporations ever abused their
access to personal information, (c) both governments and corporations were
forgiving of minor transgressions, (d) both were very careful to avoid
errors, (e) both were utterly incapable of making unfair decisions for
irrelevant reasons, and (f) both were utterly incapable of screwing up
accidentally.

However, none of these preconditions is anywhere near being true.  Which
means that life is a whole lot easier and fairer if the big bureaucracies
are *not* too efficient at talking to each other.

Have you really managed to make it to adulthood (or at least university)
without ever having had a bureaucracy goof in a way unfavorable to you?
-- 
Support sustained spaceflight: fight |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
the soi-disant "Planetary Society"!  | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry