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How Can the Stimulus Plan Help the Internet?
Wired is running an article raising the question of how a US economic stimulus plan could best help broadband adoption and the internet in general. We discussed President-elect Obama's statements about his plan, which would include investments in such areas, but Wired asks how we can avoid the equivalent of the New Deal's "ditches to nowhere" without more data about where the money would actually make a difference. Quoting:
"... the problem is that no one knows the best way to make the internet more resilient, accessible and secure, since there's no just no public data. The ISP and backbone internet providers don't tell anyone anything. For instance, the government doesn't know how many people actually have broadband or what they pay for it. ... In September, the FCC found that its data collection on internet broadband was incomplete and thus ruled that AT&T, Qwest and Verizon could stop filing some reports — because the requirements did not extend to cable companies, too."
The internet is like a night market in a third world country. Who knows how it started and you'll be damned if you try to regulate it. You guys all bitch about net neutrality and the loss of your birth-right to download free music and movies. For the last 8 years. But guess what, the net is still neutral and you are still downloading free music and movies. Just let it be and go with the flow. The net is to nebulous and decentralized to be regulated. You'll still be able to infringe your precious movies and music for years to come. When $pirate_site[0] gets closed down, don't worry - $pirate_site[1] is there to supply you with your fix.
The majority of wealth comes from one choice alone: Choosing wealthy parents. I choose not to reward that.
Go back to your Objectivist reading club.
The majority of wealth comes from one choice alone: Choosing wealthy parents. I choose not to reward that.
Go back to your Objectivist reading club.
Perhaps you should return to your Liberal propaganda club first. 80% of the millionaires in the United States are first-generation affluent, according to the New York Times. The reason you aren't as successful is because you're lazy and/or stupid, not because you didn't have wealthy parents. The facts among millionaires are as follows:
Only 19 percent receive any income or wealth of any kind from a trust fund or an estate.
Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth.
More than half never received as much as $1 in inheritance.
Fewer than 25 percent ever received "an act of kindness" of $10,000 or more from their parents, grandparents, or other relatives.
Ninety-one percent never received, as a gift, as much as $1 of the ownership of a family business.
Nearly half never received any college tuition from their parents or other relatives.
Fewer than 10 percent believe they will ever receive an inheritance in the future.
You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. - Winston Churchill