Latest news with #Luddite
Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Terry Savage: My top 10 lessons for entering the digital financial era
We live in a digital world, especially when it comes to money. And, like it or not, you'll soon be forced to get used to it — especially since the IRS will soon no longer accept or pay out with paper checks! On March 25, President Trump signed an executive order mandating that all federal departments and agencies end their use of paper checks and switch to electronic payments by September 30. Soon, you'll be required to make tax payments securely and directly from your bank to the IRS via their website! (See Don't get defensive here. I'm well aware that a certain generation has no intention of moving into this 'modern' digital era. My own (younger) brother will not let me get him a smartphone, and he truly believes that I check my email every hour to get his announcement that he arrived safely home! No texting for him! My plea: If you have already joined the digital revolution, please don't give up on your Luddite family members and neighbors. They're going to need your help as cash disappears, along with paper checks. Already more than 95% of tax returns are filed electronically, even if your accountant gives you a paper copy! You can't stave off the digital era of money, so you must learn to handle everything from Venmo and Paypal to credit and banking online, securely. If, by chance, you're a 20-something who happened to read this column in a newspaper (does that happen anymore?), it is your duty to drag your grandparents into the digital age. Do your duty. After all, an older person taught you how to drive a car! OK, here are my top 10 lessons for entering the digital financial era. 1. Practice safe digitalization. Do your important financial things only on your home computer. Make sure you access the internet securely. Have a computer expert (or your grandchild) install a secure Wi-Fi connection, complete with password so your neighbors can't snoop. 2. Practice secure connectivity. Every bank and financial institution requires two-factor authentication. That means if you sign on to its website, it will instantly text or email you a code to insert on the sign-in page. (Another good reason for texting!) And banks mean it when they say 'Do not share this code with anyone'! Too many seniors are defrauded when they share this code with a fraudster over the phone. 3. Don't use your phone in public places to access private financial information. No matter who asks you to just 'check your bank balance' or 'confirm that your account is secure' — don't go online in Starbucks or outside your bank to access your account! The 'air' is insecure! 4. Protect your passwords. Yes, it's difficult to remember all those passwords — but that's no excuse for using the same one everywhere! Instead, your younger tech expert will help you get a 'password vault' — such as Dashlane or NordPass to securely generate strong passwords and safely keep track of them, auto-filling them when you go to a website. Now you only have one password to remember — the overall password to your vault. Never give it out! 5. Secure your cellphone. I've written about this before. Scammers have developed new sophisticated strategies to 'clone' your SIM card — the inner workings of your phone — allowing them to divert those two-factor text authorization messages. Ask your phone company to provide a separate password for your SIM card. That means every time you turn on the phone you need to insert not only your phone password, but the sim card password. 6. Be careful where you use your card and PIN. Don't take cash from an ATM in the grocery store unless it is an ATM provided by your bank. Keep one card for use at gas stations, where you're more likely to be a victim of skimming through devices inserted in the card slot. Reserve one card for your online purchases. 7. Use the new technology on your card. Now, instead of using the keypad to insert your PIN where someone can watch over your shoulder, just tap your card on the reader when you make a purchase. Then put the card away quickly in your RFID-protected wallet. 8. Track your bank and credit card accounts online at least weekly, from your secure Wi-Fi connection at home. You're looking for balances and unexpected charges. Call your bank or card issuer immediately if you find something suspicious. And please remember to close the browser window that accesses your bank account when you've finished looking at it! 9. Track your credit score even if you're not planning to make a large purchase or buy insurance. Changes can mean someone else is accessing your credit to borrow money. Your bank or card issuer probably offers credit score checks for free. Or sign up at Check in only on your home computer. 10. Freeze your credit at all three bureaus, by going to Then remember the PIN you created to access your credit report! There is no cost to freeze, and you can temporarily unfreeze at any time if applying for a loan or insurance. Bottom line: You can't escape the digital financial era! Your best route is to understand it, use it safely, and to your advantage. That's The Savage Truth.
New Statesman
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
James Cleverly's shadow Tory leadership bid heats up
Photo byIs James Cleverly making another bid for the Conservative leadership? That's certainly how his speech at the Conservative Environment Network's Sam Barker Memorial Lecture on Wednesday night, in which he talked about 'rejecting both the Luddite left and the Luddite right', has been interpreted by Tory watchers. 'James Cleverly takes on Kemi Badenoch over decision to ditch net zero targets', read the Guardian headline. The Mail went with 'Kemi Badenoch faces Net Zero revolt as Tory big beast James Cleverly warns her to ignore climate change 'luddites''. The Telegraph, meanwhile, wrote it up as 'Former home secretary directly challenges Kemi Badenoch on net zero'. Cleverly himself has pushed back hard against the suggestion that his speech was in any way a rebuke of the current Tory leader, calling it 'fake news'. In a punchy Twitter thread, he pointed out that he never once mentioned the term 'net zero' in the speech (he also didn't mention Badenoch), and claimed protecting the environment ('like Margaret Thatcher once did') was 'in our economic and security interests'. Indeed, the text of the speech itself was far more about foreign policy (in particular the threat of Chinese dominance and mass migration caused by climate change) than it was about carbon emission targets. But the fractured state of the Conservative party is such that any intervention from a high-profile figure will be read as a tacit (or not so tacit) criticism of Kemi Badenoch's leadership and attempt at positioning to be her successor. That applies to Cleverly's environmental speech just as much as it applies to Robert Jenrick's viral videos on confronting fare-dodgers on the London Underground. It is the latter who has drawn the most attention in the seven months since Badenoch became leader. Partly, this is due to the fact that Jenrick was the runner-up, after a mix-up over vote-swapping meant Cleverly was knocked up before he had the chance to face the membership. Partly it's down to Jenrick's place in the shadow cabinet, whereas Cleverly has taken a break from frontbench politics. And partly it's to do with visibility – once dubbed 'a very ambitious blur' by Andrew Marr, no one watching Jenrick's frenetic activity in opposition has any doubt that he still covets the top job. Jenrick's stance, in the leadership contest and since, has been to shift rightwards and attempt to neutralise Nigel Farage by moving onto Reform's turf. But as the Tory party grapples with having to rebuild from an election calamity that saw it lose hundreds of seats to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, Cleverly's name is increasingly being whispered by moderate Conservatives anxious about both the polls and the Reform-wards tilt. Cleverly's positioning as the 'One Nation' candidate in the 2024 leadership race came as something of a surprise to those close to him. A Brexit-backer first appointed to the role of foreign secretary by Liz Truss, he assumed the role of the moderates' champion almost by default, with both Jenrick and Badenoch running from the right. One friend in the party described his politics as 'to the left of Kemi, but not by much – his heroes are Thatcher and Regan', and called the One Nation label 'grossly simplistic'. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe But it is true that Cleverly saw himself as a unifier, someone who could bring different strands of the party together after its worst ever defeat and who understood that parties can only win by building a broad coalition of support. Another ally said his pitch to the membership, had he got to that stage, would have been to argue there is more mileage in listening to voters who abandoned the Conservatives over concerns about competence and values rather than chasing people who have found a new home in Reform. At the time, the received consensus was that Tory members always pick the more right-wing candidate of the pair offered to them and would do again. That consensus is the reason Jenrick is the now bookies' favourite, seen as the likeliest successor to Badenoch. But something interesting may be happening to the Conservative membership. Tory members are notoriously hard to poll (we don't even know how many there are), but Reform now claims to have over 200,000. A substantial chunk of these are understood to be former Tories who have quit the party since the 2024 election. That will inevitably have shifted the internal dynamics among those who remain, perhaps to the extent that more moderate members – those repelled by Farage who find Jenrick's talk of some kind of pact with Reform anathema – now hold the majority. A Cleverly candidacy now, I was told by an active member in one local association, would have a much higher chance of success than in autumn 2024. (Others have different perspectives.) The parliamentary party too is more nuanced than current narratives about the Tories' rightwards tilt suggest. In the penultimate round of MP voting, the two candidates coded as more centrist – Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat – received 59 votes together; Jenrick and Badenoch got a combined 61. (On the environmental front, the Conservative climate caucus in parliament boasts 49 MPs.) A former Tory MP referred to the remaining One Nation cohort as the 'sleeping giant' of the Conservative party – a group that, were it to band together, could be a serious force in parliament. It will not have escaped their notice that the Tories are spiralling situation under Badenoch. A poll last month put the Conservatives fourth – below Reform, Labour and the Lib Dems – on a popularity level not seen since 2019 and Theresa May's Brexit deadlock. One Tory insider called the figures 'extinction-level'. Some Conservatives are getting desperate: rumours are swirling of various plots to oust Badenoch, possibly even before her year's grace period as leader is up in November. A Survation poll last week suggested 60 per cent of 2024 Conservative voters thought bringing back Boris Johnson would be better than keeping Badenoch as leader. Against this backdrop, any signs of dissent are being seized upon. Earlier this week, eight Tory MPs (including Father of the House Edward Leigh) wrote to Keir Starmer saying they would support him if the government were to move to recognise a Palestinian state – another move interpreted as an attempt to 'defy' Badenoch. Cleverly gave his Conservative Environment Network speech the following day, and was similarly read as a rebuke. The rumour persists that a coup is just around the corner, and every intervention plays into that narrative. Any hint of a Cleverly revival, however, should be tempered with a few caveats, both personal and political. His wife Susie, who is herself much loved in Conservative circles, came through a difficult battle with an aggressive form of breast cancer two years ago, which would caution anyone considering what's widely considered one of the worst jobs in politics to think twice. 'I'm not sure he's really been able to be in that headspace,' was the assessment of one friend. More generally, while frustration with Badenoch is growing, even her fiercest critics acknowledge that changing leaders yet again would do 'irreparable damage' to the already wounded party and be 'a colossal act of self-harm'. And that's without taking into considering how difficult it is to rebuild so soon after an election. One former MP who lost their seat in July put it bluntly: 'She's doing an impossible job badly.' Even Jenrick, for all his obvious ambition, doesn't want a leadership challenge now. His video efforts are aimed firmly at attacking Labour figures (Keir Starmer, Richard Hermer, Sadiq Khan). Yes they can be viewed obliquely as presenting an alternative pattern for leadership, but it isn't Badenoch in the direct crosshairs. Axing a leader so soon would fuel Labour and Reform narratives that the Tory party is too dysfunctional to be taken seriously, and the new leader – whether Jenrick, Cleverly, or someone else entirely – would be facing the exact same challenges and the same uphill battle. Boris Johnson has in past years likened himself to Cincinnatus, the Roman statesman who 'returned to his plough' after leading the state at a time of crisis and was then called back to assume power a second time. But years before that the then London mayor described his ambition to be PM with the line that 'Obviously, if the ball came loose from the back of a scrum – which it won't – it would be a great, great thing to have a crack at.' A passionate rugby fan himself, this was the comparison made by several people close to Cleverly about his leadership hopes. That doesn't mean that the former home secretary was clueless as to how his speech might be interpreted. One of the major criticisms of Badenoch is not merely the direction in which she seems to be taking the Tories, but the fact this seems to be down to 'drift' as opposed to a conscious and deliberate strategy, leaving the party undefined and chaotic. 'The first stage of surviving is defining yourself,' one centrist Tory put it. They then quoted the line from the musical Les Miserables: 'It is time for us all to decide who we are.' Cleverly's bold defence of a Conservative environmental agenda – one that takes in both economic and national security concerns – should be read, they argued, as a reminder that there is another way of doing leadership, one that isn't afraid of taking stances that come with trade-offs, 'and someone has to be a flag-bearer for it'. Finally, there is the personality issue. While Badenoch's management style veers towards abrasive and her media appearances lack cut-through, Cleverly is respected from all wings of the party as a strong media performer who can bring people together. 'James was pointing out that charismatic leaders are available,' one Tory insider quipped. 'He can't help being likeable and human.' What the speech does reveal is how far perceptions of the Tory party have travelled in a very short space of time. When Badenoch announced the party's U-turn on net zero in March, Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, noted the decision 'undermines the significant environmental legacy of successive Conservative governments'. Six years ago Theresa May was signing the UK's net zero commitments into law; three and a half years ago Boris Johnson was championing Britain's climate leadership at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow. Back then, Cleverly's insistence that 'the idea that we must choose between a strong economy and protecting our environment is outdated and wrong' or support of climate commitments as 'defences against energy shocks and geopolitical instability' would not have been considered remotely controversial in Tory circles. Now, it's interpreted as a leadership challenge. And until the situation improves the Conservatives, so will everything else. [See also: Kemi Badenoch is in a hole – and she keeps digging] Related
Washington Post
23-05-2025
- Washington Post
Artificial intelligence is coming to get you
As only a part-time luddite, I am nevertheless head-in-the-sand when it comes to AI. That's artificial intelligence for those who are in full-time denial or willfully ignorant. It feels like we began hearing about AI only about a week ago and, seemingly overnight, we're pedal-to-the-metal into a new frontier that promises massive job losses and other transformations.
Axios
19-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Salt Lake City coffee shops crack down on remote work campers
Some coffee shops in Salt Lake City are trying to keep remote workers from taking over, nixing Wi-Fi and limiting laptops to dissuade Zoom squatters from setting up shop. Why it matters: Many coffee spots across the country have seen work-from-homers posting up for hours on video calls as they look for a "third space" that isn't their home office — causing overcrowding, hurting sales and detracting from a community feel. While many companies are now enforcing return-to-work policies, remote work numbers are still higher now than they were pre-pandemic, per the Census. State of play: The execution varies, coffee shop owners told Axios. Some spots are all-in on the Luddite game — aka no internet or laptops at all. Others limit their use to certain time stretches or days of the week. And others? Well, they've simply taped over outlets. Zoom in: Erica O'Brien was among Salt Lake City's first to not offer Wi-Fi at her coffee shop when she opened The Rose Establishment in 2010. She told Axios she aimed to foster a safe and comfortable environment that encouraged human connection, even with strangers. Yes, but: Her unique model at the time prompted some customers to storm out or write bad reviews online, insisting her business would fail. People sitting on their computers all day could be detrimental to a coffee shop's bottom line, she noted. What they're saying: "You can't make money, and then if you don't make money ... you can't pay for the payroll, you can't give raises, you can't grow," she said. She's encouraged that other businesses like 9th and 9th's Coffee Garden, which stopped offering internet to customers a few years ago, are joining the trend. Nick Price operates two coffee shops in town: Three Pines Coffee on Main Street, which lacks Wi-Fi, and Holy Water, which offers it because it's close to the University of Utah and has less foot traffic. Price said he doesn't provide internet at Three Pines because the space offers only 12 seats. When designing Holy Water, he said he was strategic about where to place power outlets, designating certain areas for people to enjoy their coffee and converse. He's looked into ways to impose a limit on how long a customer can use the internet, but he said the technology is expensive. The bottom line: If you plan to camp out to get work or studying done, Price encourages customers to be considerate.
Mint
14-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Hong Kong's taxi drivers are told to smile more
Hong kong has had a tough few years. It saw huge pro-democracy protests in 2019, covid lockdowns and a political crackdown in 2020, and a new national-security law in 2020. Those changes and their fallout have taken their toll on the tourist industry. Some 65m people visited in 2018. In 2024 that was down to 45m. Now officials have launched a $16bn blueprint to bring tourists back, including high-profile pop concerts, horse-racing at the legendary Jockey Club and four new giant pandas. One small but crucial part of it focuses on taxi drivers. Hong Kong's cabbies are famously rude, and getting ruder. In 2023 there were 11,500 complaints about them as a group, an increase of 53% on 2022. Requests—for a different route, an open window or a safe arrival—are scorned. Many insist on only taking cash, but will not stop at an atm. So part of the new programme is a courtesy campaign. Bad behaviour is subject to a penalty-points system, with 11 offences such as taking a longer route qualifying for points; 15 points bring a ban. Another part of it is just bringing a Luddite contingent into the 21st century. Legislation was proposed in December that will force taxis to accept digital payments and install surveillance cameras. Cabbies are encouraged to 'smile more". The new measures are unlikely to cheer drivers. The industry is beset by an ageing workforce, dwindling pay and growing competition. Some 60% of cabbies are 60 or older. In 2023 an 87-year-old taxi driver had three accidents in nine days. Few can afford to retire and new recruits are put off by the low pay. 'Around 40 years before, taxi drivers earned enough salary for their family, but now it's not enough," says Tsz Lok Hui, a cabbie. The average take-home is equivalent to $29,000 a year, less than the median wage. The number of licences is capped by the government. They are traded in a loosely regulated market and rented out to drivers, who are self-employed. To buy one costs around $350,000, says Mr Hui, with 'the top price" around $900,000. To rent his taxi costs $120 a day. So after 12 hours he earns about $75. Hong Kong taxi drivers are also being overtaken by Uber. The app's legal status is unclear—the city has no regulations covering ride-hailing apps—but 46% of residents use it, according to the company. Some taxi drivers have taken matters into their own hands: last summer they went undercover to try to report Uber drivers to the police. But the authorities may be reluctant to clamp down because Uber projects an image of modernity and appeals to tourists. A taxi union threatened to strike in March unless officials cracked down, but it was averted at the last minute after the government promised to better enforce the law. Grumpy taxi drivers also push passengers to Uber, admits Mr Hui. And then there are the mainland tourists. Some 34m of the 45m visitors to Hong Kong in 2024 came from mainland China. Cabbies seem to retain a particular disdain for mainlanders, a feeling returned with interest by Mandarin-speaking tourists. On Xiaohongshu, a mainland social-media app, posts with the hashtag 'Hong Kong taxis ripping off passengers" have 480,000 views and counting. In one recent post a mainlander complained that a taxi driver overcharged her by 220%. 'Why does the government tolerate the existence of these bad apples?" she asked. From official campaigns and mainland tourists, the pressure to smile is increasing. Subscribers can sign up to Drum Tower, our new weekly newsletter, to understand what the world makes of China—and what China makes of the world.
