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America's Not So Up to Speed

Posted by Zonk on from the tortoise-only-wins-it-so-long dept.

indiejade writes "According to The Broadband Life, the U.S. has quite a way to go before catching up to countries such as South Korea, Japan and even Canada when it comes to percentage of the population enjoying high-speed internet access. 'In 2000, the U.S. ranked third in Net users connecting at high-speed among the top-30 world economies. The next year it fell to fourth. Now it's 11th,' the article said." Commentary on this is also available at Foreign Affairs and The New York Times.

5 of 516 comments (clear)

  1. I for one.. by Stalyn · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    think they should erect some sort of memorial to all those GIs who died in the Korean conflict so South Koreans can enjoy high-speed online gaming. Something like a young korean teenager playing Everquest II with a ghost of a dead GI watching over his shoulder with a tear in his eye... oh man I'm choking up...

    --
    The best education consists in immunizing people against systematic attempts at education. - Paul Feyerabend
  2. Re:Ok, So They Do One Thing Better by tsotha · · Score: 1, Offtopic
    I read the article you linked. Basically it said the US has more people (on a percentage basis) below the poverty line, then scuttles the point by admitting the definition of "poverty line" is different between countries.

    It goes on to say even though Americans are wealthier than people of other countries, somehow people with more wealth in America have a lower standard of living than people with less wealth in other countries because the distribution of wealth in the US is more uneven. That argument doesn't stand up to much scrutiny, does it?

    I'm not saying Americans have a higher standard of living, but the wikipedia article you're referencing doesn't provide any support for its assertions.

    I have a friend living in a veritable shoebox in Tokyo who is widely envied by his local acquaintances for the luxury of so much space. Here in the US your neighbors would call animal control if your doghouse was that small.

    I have a friend in Canada who came to the US for a week so he could get his ACL fixed when the wait up North would be up to ten years. I wouldn't consider that to be an acceptable wait for knee reconstruction.

    The point is "standard of living" is impossible to measure across societies, since different societies have different ideas of what's important.

  3. DUMBASS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    bytes not bits
    Network speed is measured in bits NOT bytes.

  4. Now THAT's Funny!.. by Cryofan · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    you are an unappreciated genius...

    --
    eat shiat and bark at the moon
    1. Re:Now THAT's Funny!.. by Ender's+in+use2 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I'm getting indeterminate sarcasm readings from that.

      I'm choosing to take it as a compliment.