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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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No Stupid Questions
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This community is for people to ask questions they feel stupid for not knowing the answer or how to find the answer. "How do I not already know this?"
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It simply is true. You’re talking about what should happen based on something you read. I’m talking about what is happening based on concrete 1st-hand experience.
“have to” ≠ status quo reality. Apparently you missed the demonstration in Brussels a few weeks ago where hundreds of people demanded the reopening of offline public services. Some real-world test cases:
case 1: If you go to the commune to deregister, you fight your way past their attempt to push the online service, at which point you talk to someone in the population registry dept. who only directs you to send the request via post. If you hand-deliver the request into their postbox, they simply ignore it. (side note: ignoring postal correspondence is the same way public services in the US have started quietly unofficially imposed online transactions)
case 2: If you go to the commune to reserve parking in front of your property for workers, they point to a QR code on the wall. If you insist on an offline transaction, the receptionist refuses. If you say that you need to pay cash, the receptionist says “impossible, because online is the only way”.
“have to” ≠ reality also for analog payments. It is legally obligatory in Belgium for money recipients to accept cash banknotes. But it’s not enforced. Both the gov and private sector services (e.g. Vivaqua) are violating that law.
So indeed, you cannot simply trust at face value what you read is supposed to happen. You need to actually demand offline service yourself. Best to test it in Brussels; this is where some communes are experimenting with digital exclusion.
That page is undated and that quote is no longer true. Case 2 above happened this year.