Questionable Content XVII: "My Brain Is Trash And I Live On The Internet"

[Wraith]

Welcome to the latest installment of discussion threads for Questionable Content, a M-F"slice of life" comic in which life is defined by coffee, robots, Butts Disease, and spontaneous metal interludes.

You have been warned.

Links To The Past
Questionable Content 1
Questionable Content 2: Espresso With Extra Scorn
Questionable Content 3: Ironically Quite Popular
Questionable Content 4: Attack of the 60-Inch AnthroPC
Questionable Content 5: Suffers Occasional Outbreaks of Butt's Disease
Questionable Content 6: Murder Mode
Questionable Content 7: Will Work For Makeouts
Questionable Content 8: OMG I SHIP IT!
Questionable Content 9: To Kill a Yelling Bird
Questionable Content 10: La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo
Questionable Content 11: It's Like Seeing a Unicorn
Questionable Content 12: Artificial Unintelligence
Questionable Content 13: It's YOU Who Is The Dork!
Questionable Content 14: I Deserve A Fancy Butt Emblem
Questionable Content XVI: Yes, Butt

And now we return to the adventures of Burger Oni and Semi-Naked-Blue-Robot-Chick. They fight crime with watermelons, or something, i'unno.

[Ibrinar]

I kinda forgot she had a new body until this strip reminded me.

[Delicious Taffy]

Yeah, and it comes with some rockin' eyebrows.

[Agi Hammerthief]

You don't have a spreadsheet about you, you don't get a rating.

depends on the situation.
I‘m sure May got good ratings on the way to COD especially because she has no sheets spread around her

[Max_Killjoy]

Shame the spreadsheet relies on violating privacy and security for millions of people.

[Keltest]

Shame the spreadsheet relies on violating privacy and security for millions of people.

Im not sure that i agree with the idea that one's tendency to pay off their debts on time (or not do so) is private information. Definitionally it is a trend constructed from your interaction with other people or groups.

I do think if you look at a 58 year old person trying to buy a car and go "wow, he has no credit score. Clearly he is a massive financial risk! Dont sell to him!" youre a pretty big idiot though.

[PhantomFox]

For every rule, there is someone who has made that rule necessary. Can you think up a situation where lending to someone in the same situation would be a bad idea?

[Traab]

If you dont have a credit history then how can anyone considering lending you money not find it to be riskier by far than lending to someone with a 20 year history of making regular payments to debts owed? Its a completely blind gamble. Good credit doesnt make it certain that the debt will be repaid, but it does make it far more likely as they have a proven history of doing so. Thats why its so important to establish a credit history even though everything up till house buying time you have managed to pay out of pocket and no payment schedule needed. Because paying up front is easy. Its being able to make payments long term thats far harder and more important to banks and such.

[halfeye]

If you dont have a credit history then how can anyone considering lending you money not find it to be riskier by far than lending to someone with a 20 year history of making regular payments to debts owed? Its a completely blind gamble. Good credit doesnt make it certain that the debt will be repaid, but it does make it far more likely as they have a proven history of doing so. Thats why its so important to establish a credit history even though everything up till house buying time you have managed to pay out of pocket and no payment schedule needed. Because paying up front is easy. Its being able to make payments long term thats far harder and more important to banks and such.

However, if you always clear your credit card bill, that's demonstrably not the case, the debts may only have lasted until the credit card bill arrived, but you've always paid them.

[TaRix]

Yeah, but the thing is, though I had a null score for years, I DO have a decades-long history of, you know, living, paying rent and bills(on time), and being employed (and insured, even.)

Also have proof of down-payment-have, years of direct-deposit-accounts, vehicles paid in full, and a conspicuous lack of black marks on said empty report.
Given all that, all I'd have to prove is that my identity isn't a made-up construct.

But no, I've been robbing the credit cards of their cut by not spending their extra charges on things, keeping my paycheck in my town. Therefore, I must be punished.

[Kish]

I have so much I want to say on this subject.

I am not saying any of it because it would all violate the no-politics rule.

Yes, I am in fact posting a contentless post because I am currently feeling martyred.

(I tried twice to write a post that I could look at and not think "that's an infraction waiting to happen." I did not succeed.)

[Max_Killjoy]

I have so much I want to say on this subject.

I am not saying any of it because it would all violate the no-politics rule.

Yes, I am in fact posting a contentless post because I am currently feeling martyred.

(I tried twice to write a post that I could look at and not think "that's an infraction waiting to happen." I did not succeed.)

I've lost count of the number of posts I've written and then deleted on that same account.

[Mechalich]

It's not really relevant to the comic anyway. I brought up the credit report thing as one of the functional mechanisms by which May's specific criminal history (as opposed to just having to check the yes in the 'Have you ever committed a felony' box on applications) impedes her ability to serve as a business manager.

Honestly, I'm just going to say that I really, really, dislike this plotline. It's a bizarre outgrowth of what seems to have been a poorly thought-out joke in the first place (Aurelia embarrassing Clinton with the whole digital cow thing), it makes no sense as a practical matter, it feels out of place with Marigold's personality, and it strikes me as wholly unnecessary.

[Vinyadan]

I think Hannelore could use a plotline now, to show how she's become. For example, her dad once sent a robo-boyfriend chassis. Now that technology has improved, could a relationship with an AI be viable for her? And what about a human, can she do that now?
It would be a way of showing parts of her personality that were buried by her disease. Or maybe to show that they need development. I think that a cured Hanners having a chance to meet a wider reality - like missing a bus on a rainy day and having to run your way to work while being spashed by passing cars - is more interesting than zen Hanners sitting on her throne in CoD like a videogame innkeeper with no life beyond answering random PC questions.

[Cikomyr2]

However, if you always clear your credit card bill, that's demonstrably not the case, the debts may only have lasted until the credit card bill arrived, but you've always paid them.

If you always clear all your credit card bills, then you have a history of using your credit card like a checking account for standard transactions. You aren't actually accruing debt, so it's not a history of taking a loan.

By the way, in the US how does student loans affect your credit rating? If you always paid your student loans but have no credit card, how's your credit rating?

[halfeye]

If you always clear all your credit card bills, then you have a history of using your credit card like a checking account for standard transactions. You aren't actually accruing debt, so it's not a history of taking a loan.

It ought to be, it's a debt that you cleared. It's a failure of the accounting system if that's not credited, now there is the capacity to do that, even if there wasn't in the 1800s.

[Drascin]

It ought to be, it's a debt that you cleared. It's a failure of the accounting system if that's not credited, now there is the capacity to do that, even if there wasn't in the 1800s.

Honestly, far as I can tell, the whole credit rating as an actual number thing in its entirety, let alone one that gets improved by being in debt longer, seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon?

[Cikomyr2]

Honestly, far as I can tell, the whole credit rating as an actual number thing in its entirety, let alone one that gets improved by being in debt longer, seems to be a uniquely American phenomenon?

More of a Anglo - Liberalist Capitalist thing. Credit rating is first and foremost a business rating. It applying for consumer is a relatively recent development in our societ.

[Wraith]

Credit is stupid, there's not question about that. It's all pretty moot, however. "BurgerOni Incorporated" or whatever it's called belongs to Marigold - its her bank account, her registered address, her contract with Twitch (or whatever it is in QC) and all the rest of it, so any transactions undertaken will be in her name and signed for by her.

Whether or not May can get involved in high-level transactions doesn't matter, because she shouldn't need to. The closest she'll get to it is that she can be a glorified postman or she can drop envelopes containing cheques into the bank's overnight slot, but the only thing she'll need to put her name to is a contract of employment under Marigold. That and a bank account, which presumably she has because even convicts can open chequeing accounts and she needs somewhere to deposit her wage every week.

May's eligibility to get involved with that isn't an issue - it's just a matter of how much her employer trusts her, which is why even the sketchy guy selling weed out of a van couldn't see past the "she stole lots of money from her former boss" angle. I feel that so far it's pretty clear that May is supposed to be a bit of a jerk, but mostly a victim of "the system" and that her failed employability so far has been entirely down to racism and/or discrimination, rather than the complexities of financial law and convention.

[Willie the Duck]

And now we iron out the plot holes. The locked-account seems glaringly like a retroactive decision (the at-the-time reason she sold the rare DVD was because Jeph hadn't yet decided this was happening), but it serves the purpose fine.

[Wraith]

Can you use an unsecured PayPal/eBay account for online transactions? Genuine question; mine are tied to my debit card, so if one stops working (eg, my account is frozen) then so does the other.

I guess they could have just had Dale or Momo do it. The alternative would be that Marigold would have to arrange, and then meet up in person with, a buyer who just happens to be the sort of pervert who would be interested in buying the world's worst hentai and I can't imagine that she would go for that even if she weren't worried about strangers connecting her to the Burger Oni persona.

[Traab]

And now we iron out the plot holes. The locked-account seems glaringly like a retroactive decision (the at-the-time reason she sold the rare DVD was because Jeph hadn't yet decided this was happening), but it serves the purpose fine.

At least its a rational retcon that makes some sense. I could totally see that happening as a random member of society with no extensive knowledge of banking laws and such. I know that certain amounts of money being deposited has to go through paperwork and be reported and so on, and suddenly spending thousands of dollars more than you ever have at once is going to be likely to set off fraud alerts like crazy. I know I have always been told to notify my bank ahead of time if im going to, say, put down a couple grand or more on a new car, just to stop this very thing from going on. I can also see marigold not even thinking about that as its likely the first time she has made a major transfer like that and getting caught out by the security system of her bank. Lord knows the first thing I do when I get a sizeable amount of money is pay off as many outstanding bills as I can. I hate having those floating over my head as my financial life isnt always the most stable so getting rid of debts asap is great. Plus I love the long term benefits of no longer needing to make those regular payments which frees up more money in my budget. Yeah its not buying a new car kind of nice, but extra breathing room is always good.

[Rodin]

May's eligibility to get involved with that isn't an issue - it's just a matter of how much her employer trusts her, which is why even the sketchy guy selling weed out of a van couldn't see past the "she stole lots of money from her former boss" angle. I feel that so far it's pretty clear that May is supposed to be a bit of a jerk, but mostly a victim of "the system" and that her failed employability so far has been entirely down to racism and/or discrimination, rather than the complexities of financial law and convention.

The problem is that we've seen exactly one case of May being actively discriminated against. The rest of her rejections came from her stealing enough money to buy a fighter jet. You can't go from "she stole millions of dollars" to "the system is too harsh on petty criminals who have served their time". In reality, May would still be in prison and would be staying there for quite a few years. May's situation is very hard to be sympathetic for - she wasn't struggling financially prior to her crime, she didn't have a bad upbringing, etc etc. The human equivalent of what she did would be a middle class bank manager emptying the vault because they wanted to buy a sports car.

At least its a rational retcon that makes some sense. I could totally see that happening as a random member of society with no extensive knowledge of banking laws and such. I know that certain amounts of money being deposited has to go through paperwork and be reported and so on, and suddenly spending thousands of dollars more than you ever have at once is going to be likely to set off fraud alerts like crazy. I know I have always been told to notify my bank ahead of time if im going to, say, put down a couple grand or more on a new car, just to stop this very thing from going on. I can also see marigold not even thinking about that as its likely the first time she has made a major transfer like that and getting caught out by the security system of her bank. Lord knows the first thing I do when I get a sizeable amount of money is pay off as many outstanding bills as I can. I hate having those floating over my head as my financial life isnt always the most stable so getting rid of debts asap is great. Plus I love the long term benefits of no longer needing to make those regular payments which frees up more money in my budget. Yeah its not buying a new car kind of nice, but extra breathing room is always good.

I had a fun one of these. My father had just moved to the UK and needed money to buy a car, furniture, etc.. So, he does some research and finds a website with a really good transfer rate. Only problem is, he can only do $5000 at a time and there's a $10000 monthly limit. So, he does his transactions before sending me the other half. I do two transactions to his account, and the money is all where he can use it with a minimum lost.

Except one thing - I'm working for a bank at the time. My account is being monitored, and it flags up that I'm receiving and sending out large sums of money in a pattern that exactly fits money laundering. I had a very fun meeting with my manager and the fraud department where they explained to me why they were concerned and I tried to get through to them that I was not some criminal mastermind working for a European drug cartel.

[Willie the Duck]

At least its a rational retcon that makes some sense. I could totally see that happening as a random member of society with no extensive knowledge of banking laws and such. I know that certain amounts of money being deposited has to go through paperwork and be reported and so on, and suddenly spending thousands of dollars more than you ever have at once is going to be likely to set off fraud alerts like crazy. I know I have always been told to notify my bank ahead of time if im going to, say, put down a couple grand or more on a new car, just to stop this very thing from going on. I can also see marigold not even thinking about that as its likely the first time she has made a major transfer like that and getting caught out by the security system of her bank. Lord knows the first thing I do when I get a sizeable amount of money is pay off as many outstanding bills as I can. I hate having those floating over my head as my financial life isnt always the most stable so getting rid of debts asap is great. Plus I love the long term benefits of no longer needing to make those regular payments which frees up more money in my budget. Yeah its not buying a new car kind of nice, but extra breathing room is always good.

Oh, it certainly does, it's just a pretty obvious 'oh shoot, now I have to explain...' situation. Yeah, Marigold fits the situation very well. I've been sitting on my hands during the whole credit score and financial fraud discussions because I've worked in refinance and anti-money laundering, have lots of opinions on the subject, and don't want to be 'that guy' in the discussion, and this whole things sounds remarkably plausible. Jeph put some thought into it and did his basic research (perhaps learning a lesson from the number of subs he gave Burger Oni. if we still think this is an accidental plotline).

[Wraith]

The human equivalent of what she did would be a middle class bank manager emptying the vault because they wanted to buy a sports car.

I'm not at all disagreeing with you, but apparently Jeff is. It almost seems like his message is that if you have been in prison and completed your sentence, that's it - all done, back to normal, nothing to see here, 'consequences' is just a fancy word that means 'discrimination'!

It would probably help if May had in any way been shown to have been rehabilitated so that we had any indication that she wouldn't break the law again if given the chance. I can only imagine an up-coming story arc wherein May is given the opportunity to steal a chunk of money and then chooses not to, thus proving that she is a better person now. Or at least because she is scared of going back to prison, which amounts to the same thing.

I tried to get through to them that I was not some criminal mastermind working for a European drug cartel.

I would like to think your defence was, "Do you really think that if I *were* smuggling money for drug cartels that I would be dumb enough to do it through the same bank where I work? And if the answer to that is 'yes' please recall that YOU were the ones dumb enough to be completely manipulated into hiring me by my dumb ass!" however... I've worked in retail for a really long time, and those sort of rules exist for a reason. Someone, somewhere, probably is THAT dumb....

[Lapak]

I'm not at all disagreeing with you, but apparently Jeff is. It almost seems like his message is that if you have been in prison and completed your sentence, that's it - all done, back to normal, nothing to see here, 'consequences' is just a fancy word that means 'discrimination'!

It would probably help if May had in any way been shown to have been rehabilitated so that we had any indication that she wouldn't break the law again if given the chance. I can only imagine an up-coming story arc wherein May is given the opportunity to steal a chunk of money and then chooses not to, thus proving that she is a better person now. Or at least because she is scared of going back to prison, which amounts to the same thing.

Well, I mean that there is the difference between a criminal justice system focused on rehabilitation vs. punishment, because those aren't the same thing at all. And yeah, the argument can be made that if you have a punishment-based system and not a rehabilitation-based one, then the penalty of time served should be the beginning and the end of it, because the goal isn't to change people but to discourage behaviors, and either the punishment is doing that or it isn't, regardless of whether the person has changed or not.

[Wraith]

I beg your pardon, I thought it was clear that that line was sarcasm.

[Lapak]

I beg your pardon, I thought it was clear that that line was sarcasm.

The error is entirely mine.

[Kish]

You can't go from "she stole millions of dollars" to "the system is too harsh on petty criminals who have served their time". In reality, May would still be in prison and would be staying there for quite a few years.

The comic never actually establishes the time frame. However many years you would consider appropriate for such a sentence, unless it's either "life" or "long enough that it would have to be before there were fighter jets," she may well have exceeded it.

I'm not at all disagreeing with you, but apparently Jeff is. It almost seems like his message is that if you have been in prison and completed your sentence, that's it - all done, back to normal, nothing to see here, 'consequences' is just a fancy word that means 'discrimination'!

It would probably help if May had in any way been shown to have been rehabilitated so that we had any indication that she wouldn't break the law again if given the chance. I can only imagine an up-coming story arc wherein May is given the opportunity to steal a chunk of money and then chooses not to, thus proving that she is a better person now. Or at least because she is scared of going back to prison, which amounts to the same thing.

Treading lightly...
I suspect Jeph doesn't want to show that prison actually effects positive changes in people because he doesn't believe that. And going to prison, itself, clearly is a consequence; saying that someone who has served their term deserves a blank slate* is not synonymous with saying they should face no consequences...and saying "X deserves to be permanently unemployable" is a roundabout way of expressing the concept "X deserves to starve to death**," which is not the official legal sentence for anything because of cruel and unusual punishment rules.

*Which I should note, on the other side, I think Jeph would choke if he was asked to sign off on that statement for certain violent crimes, anyway.
**And yes, even AIs need to eat electricity apparently, so it's still starving.

[DavidSh]

The comic never actually establishes the time frame. However many years you would consider appropriate for such a sentence, unless it's either "life" or "long enough that it would have to be before there were fighter jets," she may well have exceeded it.

Do you mean AI fighter jets here? There should be a number of decades between the appearance of human-controlled fighter jets and the rise of AI-controlled fighter jets, since in our world the first jet fighters arose in the 1940s, while AI-controlled jet fighters are not yet evident.