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1Mb Broadband Access Becomes Legal Right In Finland
An anonymous reader writes "Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, according to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Finland is the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access. The Finnish people are also legally guaranteed a 100Mb broadband connection by the end of 2015."
People have a "right" to anything they want. Didn't you know that?
It's easy to defend the rights to freedom of speech or of assembly. Those can be rationally derived from the fact of one's existence. But the right to broadband? Especially to a specific amount of bandwidth? Complete nonsense. What this really means is that the person getting the bandwidth has the power of government, with its ability to jail those that don't pay the appropriate taxes, to make bandwidth-providing slaves out of one group of people, so that another group can have the "right" to a service used (at that data rate) primarily by personal users for entertainment.
So this new right is just yet another form of redistribution of the fruits of productive labor, and more Nanny Statism. Of course. And when you make getting the use of a dermatologist or an allergist a "right," this is exactly the sort of thing that comes next.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
that's BULLSHIT
"Do you mean liberalism as defined by the various political parties and interest groups in the US, or Liberalism, generally? Either way, I don't think that term is useful or productive, especially when the context here is Finland."
He means, liberalism as in the government forcing another program on its people that will eat away at their freedoms. Sure, you may be able to get great broadband in Finland after this passes, but people from the working class will be left without another choice because they are forced to pay for it with taxes.
Many people in Sweden, Finland, and Norway (and any other country with ridiculously high taxes) can barely save any money because the majority of it (majority = >60%) is taken and used toward taxes. This isn't freedom to me. I would like the freedom to spend the money that I earn in any way that I see fit.
"In the US, the crowds shout "We insist on being free so don't dare try and give us any stuff", while in Europe, it's "Keep giving us free stuff or we'll bring you down!" Left-wing? Perhaps. But I suspect one side is getting a good deal, while the other ... well, what's the state of broadband in the US? ;-)"
Pretty damn good if you ask me. I have had broadband here in the US since '97. You can get it in pretty much every city for an affordable price.
I suppose when most of your paycheck is going to the government, your priorities are a little different.
Neither can he afford to heat his swimming pool.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
even for esstentials like power and water, i think if you choose to live in the middle of no where, your on your own.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
""Thank god I live in a country where I'm free to lose my home if my wife or kid gets sick, just as our Founding Fathers intended."
You say that in a mocking way, but you're actually right. Freedom includes the risk of losing as well as the possibility of winning.
Or, you can turn your life over to a government with the promises of all your needs being taken care of from cradle to grave. All you have to give them is... everything.
The problem, for admirers of this system such as yourself, anyway, is that Europe itself is starting to question such an arrangement. People are beginning to wonder why they can't have a good medical care system without massive government expenditures. They're starting to wonder just why it's necessary to be paying so much in taxes. They're starting to wonder why starting a business has to be a bureaucratic nightmare. And they're starting to vote appropriately.
So, yes sir, I agree with you. God Bless America.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
But until the libertarian dream is realized (at least as much wishful thinking as marxist socialism) I'll take public welfare over corporate welfare any day :)
When did the work ethic and plain, simple personal responsibility become libertarian utopianism?
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
That sounds like the amount of my tax bill that goes to healthcare.
Move out of the sticks.
People leaving in rural areas were also the last to join the telephone and electrical networks as well.
I'm not supporting you're choice to live far away from what you want.
I personally want to live on a nice river, upstream of an artificial lake, with a couple acres of land, a dock with a nice bass boat sitting in it ready to go whenever I want. However, my job requires me to use the Internet all the time to transfer data often enough to make dialup unacceptable. So my choice, stay employed doing what I do, or move where I want to live.
You have the same choice, deal with it and shut the fuck up cause I don't want to hear it, or more importantly pay for it. We don't always get what we want, especially when our wants conflict with each other.
So there, I have the other shoe on my foot, and I hear where you are coming from and I think its a crock of crap from someone who is a more than a wee bit spoiled.
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You're wasting your time arguing with these people. They are the creationists of secularism. They think the government can say "Let there be health care" and health care will be, and the government saw that it was good. They have no regard for the fact that health care must actually be produced and provided, that it always has a cost and that when one person gets it "free" it means someone else paid for it without receiving it.
Any time they are saying that people have a right to something produced by others they are advocating the slave state. Lots of people are happy with that so long as they think there will be a cushion in their cage. They do not anticipate that the cushion can and will be taken away, and they will still be in the cage.
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Well, you know, if he does lose everything, it's really just God's will. Everything has meaning in His plan. You should embrace the Lord and be at peace, but make sure you pay your tithe first. (Amen!)
My roommate said to me the other day he thought that broadband should be provided by the government in the US. This made my blood boil as he is completely against any kind of governmental health care.
Before moving in with him I was under the impression he was also into home security as he owned a few handguns, taken many defensive courses, goes out to the obstacle course 6-12 times a year, etc. The first weekend he lets in a door to door security system sales person and procedes to show them around the place to point out all entrances to the home, what times we are at work, etc...
I surely hope other republicans aren't this stupid.