America's Not So Up to Speed

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.

Comments

In other news

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, America annexes Canada now becoming the largest country in the world.

Ok, So They Do One Thing Better

[Anonymous Coward]

South Korea, Japan and Canada still have a long way to go before they come close to the US's standard of living, and political and economic freedoms.

The US isn't perfect at everything, but it's pretty damn close, and is still better than any other country on the planet.

And don't forget the unquestioned military might that the rest of the world cannot match. America truly is the mightiest and greatest nation ever.

God Bless America.

Re:Ok, So They Do One Thing Better

[HillBilly]

Think again, the US is not that great.

The US is all talk and ego and with not that much punch when it comes to a lot of things.

Re:Ok, So They Do One Thing Better

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah yeah yeah. The article says nothing.

What you should be asking is how the top 10% of Americans compare to the top 10% of Japanese and Canadians. How does the bottom 10% of Americans compare to the bottom 10% of canadians. How does the mid 10% of Americans compare to the mid 10% of Japanese and Canadians. So what if America's top 10% are 15 times wealthier than its bottom 10% if Americas bottom 10% are better off than other countries bottom 50, 60, or 70%.

Then ask yourself why so many immigrants come to America each year, both legally and illegally. In the case of the illegals, they are hoping to get their piece of the bottom 10% of the American Pie. America is still THE greatest country on earth, regardless of what you tree hugging hippie socialists want people to believe. And apparently America is the only force against evil in the world too.

I guess I'm one of those assholes your were talking about. But at least I can spot a BS article that is trying to spin numbers when I see one.

Re:Ok, So They Do One Thing Better

[Zymlink]

So, Proud boy, donate to charity. Just because *you* feel guilty about making more money than those who dont apply themselves doesn't give you the right to force me to spend my money on failed social programs. Take away the safety net, and you will remove lazyness and sloth from society. That is why America rules the land. The safety net is smaller than that in the average European country. Not suprising, Europeans are lazy and less productive. 6 weeks vacation! Jeeze what a bunch of lazy bastards you people are.

No wonder we Americans have to send our boys to fight and die to protect your borders from the evils of the world, yet we selfishly leave our own borders wide open for oportunity to all those who can sneak in. It's you socialists who think that everything should be free who are the selfish me me me crowd.

Negroes, not unions

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the negroes with their Nig-rays (subatomic particles emitted by all negroes) that slow down our telecommunications networks.

Re:Negroes, not unions

[Anonymous Coward]

eat your white shit

shit is usually brown, like the skin of a negro

Well, obviously

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously the thing that is holding America back is the threat that local governments or municipalities might begin to offer free wireless internet, which is stifling competition from the small handful of companies who currently own local monopolies on the phone and cable lines. In order for America's internet infrastructure to begin to grow again, we need to illegalize public investment in internet infrastructure so that extant bandwidth holders will be free to offer some sort of wireless service at an undisclosed price at an undisclosed time in the future. ...right?

Re:ALL infrastructure

[shreevatsa]

we have neglected to pursue war, enriching the upper class, and funding a global colonial regime
No, you haven't neglected to pursue any of these, you really have pursued war, etc. ;)

Re:Bombay, London, Kuwait, Chicago...

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats right baby .. you got to be connected so that when I call the tech support you answer right NOW !!!

Re:I for one..

[Anonymous Coward]

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..

And people wonder why Koreans hate Americans.

What about an image of a Tank running over two Korean girls on the way to school?

America, the head of the stupid.

Re:The facts & figures

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Canada, the US, and Korea are all about equally urbanized.

US, 2000 census: 79.2% urban population
Canada 2001: 79.6% (statistics canada)
Korea, 2000: 77% urban

I don't think those can be compared exactly. The US Census Bureau and the Korean equivilant may have very different definitions of "Urban".

Many American "cities" are very large suburban sprawl. Korean urban areas are very different.

I have a hard time calling Houston a "city". There may be an urban core in there somewhere, but Houston is mostly a big suburban sprawl.