General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Do DU'ers Feel About Being Microchipped? Could Be New Corporate Trend In Employment.
Now that one company is using microchips on their employees how far could this idea go? What if you have to get a microchip in order to vote or get a job. What if it no long was voluntary in certain instances? And is it a violation of your privacy?
Remember we can put virtually you whole life on a microchip even right now.
ADDENDUM. There is an interest in putting RFID tags in all merchandise. It could be tracked anywhere and would contain location info and who owns it. Idea of using RFID's for inventory and marketing purposes. You can have a store without clerks to check you out.
ADDENDUM 2. Like it or not we are facing technologies that have great promise and great risks. I am surprised at how Americans have been positioned to accept things that are bad for them. Rights as a worker have been eroded so badly and the business model is such a dead end it is amazing. We now accept job insecurity as OK.
snowybirdie
(5,227 posts)In the opposite direction
TEB
(12,851 posts)dchill
(38,501 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)asking?
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)You could start your car or open your house using a chip. You could buy a ticket to an event and just walk in. There are a lot of things you could do. Yet there are serious drawbacks.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)ARE NOT THE SAME IN ANY DEGREE.
Pick a topic.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)However such a convenience can morph into something else entirely. The company in Wisconsin is selling as a convenience in that you do not have to have and ID card,
brush
(53,782 posts)Way too many unforeseen, unprogrammable, unanticipated consequences will come up.
Chips are w-a-a-a-a-y past "1984"-level intrusion 2084 even.
And what happens if you get laid off or fired?
Do they rip the chip out from under your skin as the huge security guards hustle you to the exit, carrying your years-accumulation of desk contents in one of those folding, cardboard boxes they lovingly furnish for you?
(I was on a job once and a guy got fired. These two, hulking six-foot-five, 250 lb, armed, guards came in and rushed the guy out in front of everybody. Our mouths were all gaped open wondering where the hell the company kept those guys because none of us had seen any guards the size of them before. It was scary and intimidating, which of course it was meant to be a reminder to keep our mouths shut and noses to the grindstone. I left there as soon as I could. The job was at a newspaper in the art department. They soon bought in cubicles and that was it for me. Cubicles in an art department was to me just the very antithesis of creativity and the freedom needed to create).
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)You certainly brink up a good point. What if you are laid off? being laid off any more is brutal and mean in many cases. .
What if you are in a critical job somewhere? Could you personally be kidnapped for your chip or could someone cut your hand off. Or could the chip be programmed to hurt you physically if it is taken out.
We are in a far new world.
jmg257
(11,996 posts)TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)We live in a work at will labor environment. Right now an employer could possible require it. For instance drug testing is very common now and is an intrusion into privacy. Credit reports are required when applying to jobs so far as I remember. Do not know if there are laws forbidding it. There are all kinds of intrusions we do not accept but cant get work if we do not comply.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)you not see the essential difference between drug-testing or credit reporting and actually HAVING ONE'S BODY INVADED?
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)Drug testing and use of credit reports for employment are an aberration. Workers have lost virtually all their rights. I worked at DOL for 24 years and workers now have an illusion that they have rights. For all practical purpose they don't anymore. By the time the Trump administration is finished and by the time RW judges end up in our courts at the federal level workers will be totally at the mercy of employers and corporations if they have one.
The future model in the corporate sector is Uber, Task Rabbit, Lyft, et al. You will just have contract and not a job I am amazed how clueless the public is on labor issues.
Response to TheMastersNemesis (Reply #16)
Name removed Message auto-removed
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)I worked for the now defunct national employment service. I worked for unemployment insurance. I worked with veterans, homeless people, welfare clients, ex felons, and the general population. And I worked just about every kind of employer you can imagine doing job opening development, I wrote OJT (on the job training contracts) and public service employment contracts for welfare recipients. I worked at Workman's Compensation Insurance Division for 5 months. I was a resource for unemployment insurance questions and labor laws, etc etc as a an employment programs specialist. We did interviewing, counseling, job search workshops for virtually all levels of occupations. We did just about everything you can imagine with labor and employment.
So yea I am an expert when it comes to employment and employment trends. As a matter of fact in the early 1990's there were articles about the trends in 21st century employment was "contract employment" with no employer of record.
I see very little good coming from the new employment model. Everyone becomes like an actor who goes from project to project. Yes it works for a few but for the great many it is a dead end.
Seeing the economic carnage was very difficult. Hopefully you are OK. Too many workers are not OK and have no future where we are going.
I simply cannot explain it all on this forum.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)could (likely) become mandatory in the future.
Bettie
(16,110 posts)or for personal convenience.
Never.
Orrex
(63,213 posts)Either they will do it outright as part of the check-in procedure, or they will offer it in exchange for minor concessions within the prison.
Release from prison and/or parole will be conditional upon retention of the chips post-incarceration.
Next they'll make it mandatory in order to receive public assistance, especially public housing.
They will then move to elements of the military and to certain public sector employees. Not elected officials, of course, because they get special rules.
At some point chipping will be mandatory for all people doing contract work for the government.
Thereafter, chips will be required when obtaining federally subsidized unemployment compensation and social security payments.
Down the road, I can see it becoming a requirement when seeking a passport, a driver's license, or a state ID card.
The chip program will, of course, be maintained by a private corporation expressly shielded from liability resulting from information theft and/or breach of privacy.
I'm not thrilled about it, but honestly the information they'd get from a chip can already be obtained more or less readily. The chip would simply make it more convenient for the entity seeking to monetize private individuals.
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,728 posts)with company phones.
My son was the head manager of a Home Depot. Given a company phone and had to carry it with him always. Store problems and department managers questions never take a day or hour off.
He did find out they "tracked" him on his days off, kept tabs on him during his lunch hour and other times that he was too upset to get into much. If his company phone did not "move" much on his days off District Would call his personal phone to ask why.
Chipping would be easier for them.
Glorfindel
(9,730 posts)NO WAY was I going to put up with that stupid *beep* at the checkout counter. I wanted an actual person to enter actual prices on an actual cash register. I also wanted an actual bag-person to carry out my purchases for me, put them in my car, and accept with gratitude the quarter I graciously bestowed upon them. Yes, I am older than dirt. Yes, I am an old curmudgeon. But I have found, over the years, that you can get used to anything, given enough time and social acceptability. I don't want to be microchipped, but I'm no longer part of the work force, and nobody particularly cares where I go or what I do.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)Regardless of how good the economy is. Labor and employment is changing in ways people will definitely hate. Workers are becoming prisoners to technology in ways they will not like. And we now have an administration that is willing to turn you into a different kind of slave.
MurrayDelph
(5,299 posts)at serial numbers tattooed on people's arms.
SWBTATTReg
(22,130 posts)and I wouldn't think the bible people would go for this either, rankles too much of '666'...
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Your smart phone captures everything you do, your texts, your posts to social media, your location....
No one seems to be bothered by that.
The idea of privacy is changing especially with younger generations. Old timers like me are far more focused on privacy than my daughters are. With a quick app, they can see where all their friends are located, get updates on things going on around them, share purchases info. All things I wouldn't do.
The next generation may have an even more relaxed version of privacy than this generation. Who knows?
FSogol
(45,488 posts)HipChick
(25,485 posts)I worked for a company, in IT, they would track you in the building....what time you got in, how long you took for lunch, if you left early....
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)They could technically track you 24-7-365 with a chip. Businesses have already invaded people's social media accounts and held people responsible for their off-the-job activities, pictures, statements, etc. Being chipped by an employer and/or government agency is a frightening prospect IMHO.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)you will be assimilated.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)It is amazing how we have been herded into so many things we really hate. Your post is the best metaphor. Technology has the ability to do wonders in our lives. It also is capable of enslaving in some very unsavory and destructive ways.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)I had a new job and had to walk by a customer service area to get to my department - everybody there had wireless headsets with microphones that looked, at first glance, like they were attached to their ears. I guess it allowed people working there to walk away from their desks/cubicles and continue talking to customers. It struck me as very Borg-like and I thought we're going to be getting more and more of that over my lifetime.
FSogol
(45,488 posts)You've already microchipped yourself and paid for the privilege.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)it's not literally attached to your body
FSogol
(45,488 posts)The phone is attached to their body, 24/7
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)get the red out
(13,466 posts)I don't want a tracking device in my body. I am not a dog!
If this was forced on everyone in this country, we have already lost any semblance of Democracy at that point and voting wouldn't do any good anyway, and I will be too old to get a job by the time that happens. I don't think it will happen, I think both Dems and Rs would be against it on a massive scale. Individual employers, maybe, but not all.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)They want a national voter ID card if you examine where they want to go on this issue among others. The GOP would go for microchipping in a heart beat.
get the red out
(13,466 posts)The voter ID card is for exclusion of the people less likely to have one. If a person was required to have this implant to work, there would probably be fewer people that they don't like excluded from the political process.
Plus, without being able to limit this requirement to just the people they don't like, those they do like would have to have one too. I don't think they would like that part very much, and their supporters would probably not be in favor of it either.
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)My phone and iPad have cellular and GPS. They are on Find My iPhone. I care, but I guess that I don't really care as much as I might.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)The problem is how this technology can be used for nefarious reasons for nefarious outcomes.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)for either convenience or a price discount are often at odds.
neeksgeek
(1,214 posts)doodsaq
(120 posts)taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)Everything has a price.
kacekwl
(7,017 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)I miss a lot of things from my youth. Having to work is not one of them. Being retired and not having to work has a lot of benefits. Being old in not necessarily one of them. Having been retired or not having to work by 30 would have been much better.
You can always find something useful or interesting to do. 20 retired years and not regrets.
hunter
(38,316 posts)... than have a bad guy cut a chip out of me.
The problem with high-tech identification such as electronic cards or implanted chips is that people get lazy and automatically assume that someone with the right card or chip is legitimate.