Slashdot Mirror
Major Carriers Shun Broadband Stimulus
jmcharry sends word that as the deadline looms for requesting broadband grants from the $4.7 billion available in stimulus funding, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are conspicuously absent from the list of applicants. Quoting the Washington Post: "Their reasons are varied. All three say they are flush with cash, enough to upgrade and expand their broadband networks on their own. Some say taking money could draw unwanted scrutiny of business practices and compensation, as seen with automakers and banks that have taken government bailouts. And privately, some companies are griping about conditions attached to the money, including a net-neutrality rule that they say would prevent them from managing traffic on their networks in the way they want. ... Yet those firms might be the best positioned to achieve the goal of spreading Internet access to underserved areas, some experts say." Reader Michael_Curator notes that while the major carriers may be holding back, there were still enough applications to slow government servers to a crawl, resulting in a deadline extension.
What's wrong with the postal service? They're in a sort-term downturn of a long-term declining industry, but they seem to be making cutbacks to cope.
The postal service never seems to get anything right, at least in my experience. In the 5 years I have lived in this house, they first wouldn't ever deliver my mail because they said it was the wrong address, then they decided to change my address, then obviously not content with that they decided to change yet one more time. Then one winter it snowed a lot and so my city decided to plow the streets and plowed a pile of snow close to (not blocking or otherwise obstructing) my mailbox, the mailman then decided to yell at me because I obviously control all the city's snowplows and deliberately plowed it close to my mailbox and how he had to drive closer then he normally has to (he didn't even have to get out of his truck!) and how it was all my fault. So I called the local post office and complained to them and then they complained back to me because the city plowed snow close to my mailbox. Then the next snowstorm came and the exact same thing happened. The post office would never call the city, so I ended up having to and explained it to them, they then didn't plow so close to the mailbox.
More to the point, I don't think my mail is any more likely to be snooped on than my phone is to being tapped or my computer monitored, and those are run by private companies.
Only because mail is much older and those who were fighting the American Revolution helped shape the laws and practices of the USPS so that wouldn't happen. However, lawmakers think that only criminals communicate using computers and phones so they can tap them without a warrant (even though judges basically hand them out like they were nothing).
As for medicare service being worse than private insurers, is it? Medicare has far lower administration and advertising costs. They're not perfect, but most of the people I know with complaints about denied coverage have been from private insurers. (Although I was never creative enough to call them "death panels," ha ha).
Well of course, because medicare basically will take -anyone- because they don't have to have a balanced budget.
In general, individuals are eligible for Medicare if: * They are 65 years or older and U.S. citizens or have been permanent legal residents for 5 continuous years, and they or their spouse has paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years. or * They are under 65, disabled, and have been receiving either Social Security benefits or the Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits for at least 24 months from date of entitlement (first disability payment). or * They get continuing dialysis for end stage renal disease or need a kidney transplant. or * They are eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance and have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
That basically means that anyone older than 65 will qualify for it, so of course people qualify and won't get rejected. The fact that they are taxpayer funded and don't have to make a balanced budget basically means they can take anyone with little to no consequences. A private insurer has much higher costs and has to have a balanced budget and make a profit. Medicare basically can spend all they want, lobby congress to increase taxes and has more money disproportionate to the service. Its a bit like taking a 15 year old kid giving him $1,000 and telling him to spend it, he will generally spend it on short-term things that benefit him (video games, food, etc) while an adult who gets a $1,000 in a bonus is more apt to spend it on things that will matter or for other people.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
There are a few differences. For one the entire point of a government in the first place is to keep order. In a lot of situations, having a military (or for some smaller countries a national police force) is essential for keeping order. Healthcare is no prerequisite in government and doesn't help keep order. There are a lot of people (including me) who would be willing to downsize -all- parts of government including the military, however the military isn't in my daily life. However the military has one key role, to keep the government in check similar in spirit to the second amendment. If the government becomes so corrupt, the military could stage a forceful removal of power from the government, and its pretty easy to get into the military.
But the military also has lots of national and international regulation, even though we might have the best military in the world, we could be destroyed if Europe banded together against us, or if Asia did, heck, back in the glory days of the Soviet Union they could destroy us (and did in a few proxy wars). The military can't go around firing nukes left and right because of regulations.
Military is well-controlled and essential. Healthcare is not essential, lacks a viable plan, requires either sky-high taxes or a climbing birthrate to work, and most plans kill competition leading to a bad government monopoly.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.