OLPC Announces Buy-2-Get-1 XO Laptop Sale

theodp writes "Starting November 12, The One Laptop Per Child Project will sell its affordable XO laptop to Americans for a brief period of time, but there's a slight catch: U.S. buyers must purchase two computers — one for their own child and one for a child in the developing world — for a total cost of $399. 'Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried. So the laptop project sponsored focus-group research with American children, ages 7 to 11, at the end of August. The results were reassuringly positive.'"

Comments

Re:Canadian Coins Too

[neomunk]

I too lived in Michigan in the 80s (and 90s), and would like to add a small part to your observation. The vending machines stopped taking Canadian at one point. More than once I've been stymied by a vending machine because I had the wrong countries currency.

*chuckle* I think the worst is being 5 cents short but having a Canadian nickel and 5 U.S. pennies.

Re:A certain irony...

[Kadin2048]

But you're right, we need to address the problems of our own people first before we go saving everyone else in the world. On the other hand, in the US poor is when you only have one TV set and no cable. There are many people who live below the poverty line that own a home, and who have a car. Only because we allow people to borrow money far in excess of their ability to ever repay it. You can be poor and still appear to be making it, but at the expense of a massive debt load. The economic conditions which made this possible are ending, and in the foreseeable future I think it will become dramatically harder for people at the bottom end of the economic ladder to borrow money.

It'll probably be a while before you see a famine in the U.S., like you sometimes see in Africa or parts of Asia, but without cheap credit there are definitely parts of the U.S. that could look like the countries that the OLPC is designed for (which is *not* really sub-Saharan Africa).

The solutions to the problem in the U.S. are going to be tough and long-term, and unfortunately neither political party seems interested in really doing anything about it. The Republicans want to ignore it and keep raking in profits, and the Democrats want to throw quick money at the problem and alleviate their guilt-ridden consciences. The will to make substantial investments in infrastructure and education just doesn't seem to be there yet.