One of the greatest sins of tech workers is to imagine that technology can solve everything, that there's some sort of algorithm that can just handle all the work in the world while we actively imbue our biases into them to create what the author here calls a "digital poorhouse". The concept is sharp, the examples are detailed, authoritative and include the human side, something that academics often shy away from. This book challenges your expectations of tech by showing examples that are brazenly attempting to limit welfare recipients through bureaucracy rather than improving their lives or treating the homeless as some form of over-surveilled livestock that isn't granted the same rights as housed people. It's a powerful walk through some of the most unfortunate things we've tried to push despite accusations of immorality, whether the underlying cause is cruelty, lack of resources, or simply apathy towards the poor.