government Archives - Do Not Destroy

Government App Development Cost

Building an online social security system — something that lets citizens check benefits, manage accounts, apply for services, or receive statements — is significantly more involved than a typical consumer app because it must handle sensitive personal data, integrate with backend government databases, and meet strict security and compliance standards.

Here’s a realistic view of what such a system might cost in the U.S. context (in USD), based on industry benchmarks for government service apps and secure digital platforms: (apptunix)

💰 Typical Cost Ranges for a Social Security-Type Online System

🧩 1. Basic Digital Service Portal

Core features: secure login, view benefit info, simple forms, status tracking.
Platforms: web portal and basic mobile app (iOS/Android).
💰 $100,000 – $250,000
This includes secure user authentication, database integration, and a user dashboard. (apptunix)

🛡️ 2. Medium-Complexity System

Adds: multi-factor authentication, document upload, notifications, API integration with legacy social security databases.
💰 $250,000 – $500,000
Systems that talk to existing government backends and have moderate automation live in this range. (apptunix)

🚨 3. Enterprise-Grade, Highly Secure Platform

Enterprise features: advanced encryption, biometric login, compliance with federal security standards (FISMA, NIST), accessibility compliance, real-time data syncing.
High scalability for millions of users.
💰 $500,000 – $1,000,000+
Large government services platforms or national social security systems can easily exceed this, especially when they need independent security audits or continuous monitoring. (apptunix)

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17 hours ago

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Politics on Social Media

People often talk about politics and defend or attack political beliefs—especially on social media—because politics is deeply tied to identity, values, and a sense of belonging. Here are a few reasons why it happens so often and so emotionally:

Identity and Belonging: Political beliefs often align with core values and worldviews. When someone challenges those beliefs, it can feel like a personal attack, not just a disagreement.

Tribalism: Humans naturally form groups. Politics can create an “us vs. them” mentality, where defending your side becomes a way of showing loyalty.

Echo Chambers: Social media algorithms tend to show users content they already agree with. This reinforces existing beliefs and makes opposing views seem more extreme or threatening.

Validation and Status: Expressing political views online can be a way to gain approval or respect from like-minded peers. It can also feel empowering to speak out, especially on controversial topics.

Misinformation and Emotional Content: Political content that triggers strong emotions—anger, fear, outrage—gets more attention and shares. This fuels more reactionary and defensive behavior.

Perceived Stakes: People often feel that political outcomes directly affect their rights, safety, or future. That sense of urgency makes discussions more intense.

By ChatGPT

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Politics on Social Media

People often talk about politics and defend or attack political beliefs—especially on social media—because politics is deeply tied to identity, values, and a sense of belonging. Here are a few reasons why it happens so often and so emotionally:

Identity and Belonging: Political beliefs often align with core values and worldviews. When someone challenges those beliefs, it can feel like a personal attack, not just a disagreement.

Tribalism: Humans naturally form groups. Politics can create an “us vs. them” mentality, where defending your side becomes a way of showing loyalty.

Echo Chambers: Social media algorithms tend to show users content they already agree with. This reinforces existing beliefs and makes opposing views seem more extreme or threatening.

Validation and Status: Expressing political views online can be a way to gain approval or respect from like-minded peers. It can also feel empowering to speak out, especially on controversial topics.

Misinformation and Emotional Content: Political content that triggers strong emotions—anger, fear, outrage—gets more attention and shares. This fuels more reactionary and defensive behavior.

Perceived Stakes: People often feel that political outcomes directly affect their rights, safety, or future. That sense of urgency makes discussions more intense.

By ChatGPT

801136325890850816

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In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else’s mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one’s own place and economy.

In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers…

Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else’s legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?

The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth – that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community – and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.

— Wendell Berry