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Is Cheap Broadband UnAmerican?
Reader Ant wrote to mention the article entitled Is Cheap Broadband UnAmerican? The author argues that media companies are systematically ruining the MuniWiFi efforts across the country, likening the community initiatives to a form of communism. From the article: "Telecommunications giants have mobilized a well-funded army of coin-operated think tanks, pliant legislators and lazy journalists to protect their Internet fiefdoms from these municipal internet initiatives, painting them as an affront to American innovation and free enterprise"
"coin-operated think tanks"
My gawd, that has to the the most brilliant, funny, and succinct turn-of-phrase I've read in a long time...
CO-OPs are designed to be businesses by the people, for the people, without engaging in the communist-like practice of merging everything under the government's umbrella.
Yeah, sure, right... I am under a co-op for my electricity. What does that mean for me? Expensive power, a box on my house that turns on and off my A/C at the whim of the grid, and the knowledge that while it's a co-op I have no other choice but to be a part of it.
I'm not saying that all co-ops are bad but they can become just as evil as the corporations. Just because they are setup "for the people by the people" and have members that are elected does NOT mean that they are the best things for an area.
COMPETITION IS GOOD and let's end this pay-off bullshit where corporations and co-ops get to determine what competition means.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular statement for some, but I don't LIKE the idea of state and city run internet. Frankly, I'd rather pay a private company that I know is not going to limit my access to the internet, and is not going reveal my activity to other companies without my consent.
Thats something I will pay dearly for.
Most of the city-supported internet projects that I know of in Texas are public-private partnerships, where a private ISP provides the service. So your concern doesn't apply.
The bills prevent the government from any role whatsoever -- even to let a private ISP resell excess capacity on the city network, or to use a water tower in a rural area.
Many of the projects are in small rural towns that have no broadband at all. The incumbent phone companies are holding the local economy hostage. They're saying "if we don't want to supply broadband to the town, nobody should."
I'm involved with the fight against this legislation in Texas, at SaveMuniWireless.org
Welcome to the Georgenium! The one where people believe everything they see on TV and do no self-research into finding out what might be true and what might not be. Why should they form their own opinions? There are two sides to every story but the news media is fair and balanced right?
Realize that we have not only corporations funding false research and presenting it as true we have our own government doing the same thing. Sadly people fall for it and even want more of it!
You have hit the nail on the proverbial head. We are too comfortable in the United States but that is gradually changing.
It's old saw in the I.T. community that you can give something to people, but you cannot take it away without suffering major consequences. The same is true of government.
The U.S. is heading for a huge fall, sooner than most people think. I'll leave it to those who read this to do their own research and draw their own conclusions. But I predict we'll see at least one major bank failure in the next five years along with a major crash of the real estate market.
Why? Because the real estate market now is speculative, as is fuel and food. Once you put those necessities in a speculative position all hell breaks loose.
You do realize that the only thing keeping this country afloat for the past 3 years have been the extra low interest rates pushing a boom for the housing market right?
Steel, Copper, wood, have all tripled in price in the last two years. The moment the people can't affoard to build new houses, is the same time when this country goes down into a massive recission. If it is bad enough I fully expect Fanny-mae or one of the mortage programs like it to crash and burn within ten years.
I work in Electrical industry. All winters slow down. This past winter has hundreds of contractors still sitting at home. Last year most were busy for 40 hours a week all winter long.
Sure it's only one state, but it only takes one domino.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I wholeheartedly disagree.
First, when it comes to implementation, it's not hard to set up the payment structure in such a way that it doesn't overburden the poor. For example, set the sticker price higher, but allow users to apply for income-based rebates. Since taxes will probably subsidize the cost, it's helpful to consider that most forms of taxes are disproportionately paid by the wealthy. So I don't think it's reasonable to try and turn people off the idea of municipal wifi using hand-waving about higher taxes hurting the poor.
I'm also a bit underwhelmed by your antagonistic attitude towards taxes. It's true that ultimately only the state can use force to collect debts, they are more than happy to take money "at gunpoint" in order to enforce private contracts. I don't see that as wrong, but given that this power is frequently invoked by private parties with the state acting as their agent, I think the "only the state can use force" argument has less rational appeal than emotional.
I take a much more pragmatic view of government intervention. In my mind, they should be allowed to intervene wherever the benefits of such intervention clearly outweigh the costs. In my mind, having cheap, ubiquitous Internet access is a public good. Better access to information leads to a more efficient economy, a better informed and better educated populace, and a higher standard of living for everyone. While there are ethical issues surrounding state-run programs that compete directly with private companies, I think that the benefits of a fully wired municipality outweigh them, and those benefits are going to be the greatest for the poor, not "gen-X yuppies".
You want the truthiness? You can't handle the truthiness!
"Let me now... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."
-- George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
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