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Ajit Pai Faces Heat Over Proposal To Take Away Poor People's Broadband Plans (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Democratic senators yesterday asked Ajit Pai to abandon a proposal that the senators say would take subsidized broadband plans away from "millions of Americans." The Federal Communications Commission chairman's plan for the Lifeline subsidy program would force most users of the program to find new providers. But such users could have trouble finding replacement plans or similar prices because Pai's proposal would prevent all telecom resellers from offering Lifeline-subsidized service. "Your proposal impacts over 70 percent of current Lifeline-recipient households by eliminating their wireless providers from the program, leaving less affordable and fewer Lifeline options, while making it more difficult for the companies trying to serve Lifeline customers," Senate Democrats wrote in the letter to Pai yesterday. "Instead of cutting the program, we should ensure Lifeline reaches more Americans in need of access to communication services." The letter was written by Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
Correct, library is free, FCC do everything it can to keep everyone in the dark. It is like Donald TRUMP try to make people stupid so he win again in 20/20.
Give me a break...
The library is often not open during hours where people who worked 7am to 6pm can go there. Libraries are cutting back due to funding cuts. Got to fund wars, Homeland Security theater, and mass incarceration after all.
And, practically, the Internet is a necessity these days if you're looking for a (better) job.
libraries are subsidized too.
the library is free
This is marked down I guess because it comes across as mean or dismissive but it is a valid point. You are paying for a multitude of separate plans. There are common APs scattered across a city that are already available. Obviously having broadband is nice but I spent most of my childhood without it in my home and managed to survive.
For those interested in the truth, the reason for the change was because
"A new GAO report found massive fraud within the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, which subsidizes cellular and broadband service for low-income Americans. The agency's three-year audit of the Lifeline program, begun in June 2014 to May 2017, found that more than one-third (36%) of Lifeline customers could not be confirmed as actually eligible for the program. The GAO also found that $1.2 million annually went to fictitious identities or recipients who were dead."
As said by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo, but ignored in this piece of brillent and honest reporting, âoeWeâ(TM)re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply canâ(TM)t continue.â
Yeah, why would anyone be upset over losing a subsidy when they can just go to Walmart and pay more? Seriously, what the F does this have to do with Walmart? Stupidity reigns.
And yet my taxes are supposed to pay for this?
Yep. It's called being part of a society. If you don't like it, feel free to go buy your own island or live in a cave or something.
The more one makes, the more privilege they enjoy and therefore the more they should have to give back to society. Just because your paycheck is bigger doesn't mean you work any harder. In fact, I'm willing to bet you have it much easier.
I am so glad that you said this. I had NO IDEA Ajit Pai was proposing investing in Public Wifi. Now we can all rejoice!
Yep. Keep the un(der)educated poor people poor and un(der)educated cradle-to-grave, because poor and dumb is easier to control, especially when they don't have access to a wide selection of news sources to keep themselves informed. It's a very old authoritarian tactic.
Honest question. Why is it that everyone wanting to make the world a better place is so unpleasant to anyone that disagrees with them or is even willing to entertain a devil's advocate position? Is is just that once you decide you are in it for the greater good any behavior is justifiable toward that end even when it is unnecessary?
there's folks in the rust belt for who that $9.25 subsidy is the difference between eating that week and not. If you're in one of the blasted out cities in America where the manufacturing base moved to Mexico post NAFTA it's not uncommon. If you're lucky you work 20/week at a burger king for just enough money to keep the lights on. Should they have internet? A lot of them do so their kids can do their homework. They skip meals for it.
If anything we ought to be doing more for these people. And to devil with religious objections and let's just give them free birth control already.
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Yes it would, but are you going to get the right-wing "privatize everything" crowd to get behind a new public service?
Seriously think before you speak.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I grew up without broadband also, BECAUSE IT DID NOT EXIST. Today it is basically a requirement for job searching.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Lifeline is a program for people who have low income. $30 a month might now seem like a lot to you but it's a lot for some.
There are a TON of places you can get free wi-fi...just because someone can't afford broadband, why should I have to pay for it? I can't afford a bunch of things, but I'm not asking for anyone else to pay for it. The problem with these programs, the ones that REALLY could benefit from it, aren't the one's TAKING ADVANTAGE of it!
Apparently you failed economics class.
The rich are rich because somebody created more wealth than they took and the rich were able to siphon enough in order to become rich. Honestly, it's not that hard, or do you really believe that Bezos, Gates and Buffet are that much more effective at working than the typical people working for minimum wage?
The rich themselves don't create jobs because that would make no sense. They're net takers from the economic system so if it were just them, there would be a continual drain on the economy until it fell apart completely. The reason for new jobs to be created is that somebody is willing to pay for the good or service that the job provides.
Places where that's not the case wind up like Venezuela where the economy has more or less ground to a standstill as all the profits are being siphoned off by a handful of very powerful individuals.
I don't believe it's my responsibility as a taxpayer to give poor people broadband. Seriously.
If they need to watch YouTube that bad, go to the public library.
-Styopa
So we should be happy because this subsidy is being removed and you proposed an alternative. How very generous. How many people are going to actually be able to make use.of your alternative?
Why am I arguing? If you're complaining about SJW, then you have beyond all reasonable sounded doubt demonstrated that you're a total plonker.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
But yet here you are whining an moaning about it going away and still not bring up the point.
Simple question. Would this money not be better spent on public Wifi for everyone?
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Mod this guy up, because it's a totally valid point.
Actually yes. The big issue with this, other than corruption which is the real reason it is going away, is because the "privatize everything" see a benefit to them. But city wide public access points benefit everyone, not just the poor. So they would the benefits that affect them.
I'm against the subsidizing up private internet feeds for any one but would be more than willing to get behind a public wifi system.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Taking away public welfare in favor of corporate welfare.
Have you ever been out of work and your Unemployment Benefits checks were all that kept you from being homeless? How would you feel if that had been taken away from you because it's 'socialism' or 'communism'? You think you'd be spouting the bullshit you're spouting here if you'd been homeless? Likely not. Now all we're talking about is a few bucks a month to help poor people have internet so maybe they can get a job (try getting a job without internet these days) or maybe their kids get a decent education and are NOT POOR when they're adults. Sound more like an INVESTMENT, now, instead of welfare handouts? Get correct.
The poor can get fucked so far as they're concerned. The Religious agenda is that Poor People must have angered God, and He is punishing them for their transgressions (whatever the fuck they supposedly were) so you don't 'help them', that would be going against God's Will.
As a conservative Christian, I can't thank you enough for telling me what I believe and what my agenda is. You're really providing a great public service to me and all of my peers by letting us know exactly what our motivations are and why we hold the positions we do. Honestly, I'm glad you did, because I was evidently quite incorrect about these things! I guess it must have been the obviously fake news that "residents of middle-American, conservative, moderate-income, religiously active regions" give the most to charity (source: Almanac of American Philanthropy) that had me so mixed up. I'm so glad we've got you here to set the record straight. I should have realized that it's not simply that we have different opinions on how to best help the poor, it's that we are ACTIVELY ROOTING FOR THEIR DESTRUCTION. Yes. Makes complete sense.
You have a good point. In doing so you have put forth the first issues that must be over come. The way to do that would be to figure out a way to see where it would benefit everyone. Easier said than done.
I can't say anything to your argument about religious agendas. I agree with you, but I don't have answer at this time.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
So we should be happy because this subsidy is being removed and you proposed an alternative
Yes, you should. Because, unlike you, I'm actually proposing a answer to the problem. Where all you are doing is bitching and moaning about something being taken away. Where my solution would benefit everyone, yours benefits no one.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
And your economics is tinted by Marxist bull. That the rich keep a portion that is larger than those they employ is not a wrong thing, despite your rhetoric.
Exactly what entitles these rich to take this portion of wealth? Is it because they won the birth canal lottery? Do we anoint these people as the new royalty so that they may pass their wealth from one generation to the next so as to make it possible for their prodigy to also keep their portion?
parasite (pr-st)
n. Biology An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
n. One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
"I'm not reading that wall of puerile text."
means you don't deserve to be listened too either.
The two things go hand-in-hand is the problem, and you're not going to convince these people that they should part with their money or their power, not anytime soon, and not easily.
Same reason I have to pay for part of your services.
The reality is if you don't like society then you are free to move away from it, with your money, and become a hermit.
Right, so we don't need social programs to help the poor, because if they don't like being poor they should just move the fuck away from our society. That sound about right to you?
Actually you don't understand, EMPLOYERS pay into the Unemployment fund. If they had their way they'd say 'fuck that' and not pay at all, screw you if you're unemployed, they don't care, and that's one more bit of leverage they'd have over you: do as we say, take what we give you, or you'll be HOMELESS and DIE in the streets.
But we don't live in that world do we? Unemployment benefits are insurance, yes; social insurance, because it's good for society as a whole for people to not be homeless, because then they can't get work again, and the viscious cycle continues indefiintely.
A little subsidy so people who are desperately poor can afford Internet? That's also social insurance, guaranteeing that at least their children will have the benefit of the Internet for their education.. and also so that the working adults of the household can have a better chance of getting better work, or work of any kind when they find themselves out of work. Try getting a job these days with no Internet; you basically can't.
It's a small amount of money per household and you're not seeing the big picture. Or do you want more homeless people in your city, actually begging for handouts, so their kids don't starve? Or do you just not give a shit about anyone but yourself?
Obviously having broadband is nice but I spent most of my childhood without it in my home and managed to survive.
Yeah and people lived without electricity and indoor plumbing too. Spreading broadband is exactly the kind of public communication/education/modernization project like the postal service, public libraries, rural electrification etc. was meant to achieve. When I grew up, my parents had a full encyclopedia because back then it was an edge to have a "mini-library" at home, even though this was an urban environment where the public library was reasonably close. Today just Wikipedia alone is vastly superior and available to anyone with an Internet connection. Maybe broadband isn't strictly a necessity, but if it's not a flat rate or low cap or occupies the phone line or is so slow it impacts the rest of the house you'll see it curbed. At least that's how it was when I was on dial-up as a teenager.
Personally I see the Internet as the biggest and best equalizer ever made, even if you live on the most remote farm in the smallest Podunk in the middle of nowhere and you got broadband there's no excuse to be ignorant or blame your town's poor quality or lack of institutions for it. You had a world of information at your fingertips and if all you used it for is cat videos that's on you. And compared to everything else, it's probably a relatively cheap social program if you can turn even a few kids from future welfare recipients to tax payers. Maybe a few adults too, I'm more doubtful there but with the Internet you can waste less time using online services. You can waste ridiculous amounts of time navigating phone menus many levels deep to reach a script monkey or going to a physical office to stand in line.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
There are plenty of conservatives and religious types that believe all such things should be banned and you should just be left to starve.
Slashdot is full of commies who love the idea of taking other person's hard EARNED money and giving it to others.
Slashdot is full of lazy zero information fools who think they are smart because they can express a statement of philosophical disposition rather than doing any research or otherwise offering objectively useful evidence to support their positions.
Nobody is citing studies saying access to x leads to y outcomes. Nobody is offering reasoned arguments based on merit. It's all my world view is x therefore y should be done or my world view is x therefore FUCK YOU.
You don't really think things through, do you? They're not taking online classes. They're using smart phones to look up the answers to things they don't understand and that their overworked/underpaid teachers didn't have time to teach them. And yes, that's a huge pain in the neck compared to using a computer to do it. But they can barely afford a $100 smart phone. So they make do.
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"means you don't deserve to be listened too either."
Yeah, you got that AC on some nice mental jujitsu. Not the post I'm replying to, but your 'wall of text,' lol
How can AC post slashdot if no internet?? AC not very good at ..probably most-everything, but talks themselves up to make lonesome life feel less so. OK, that sounds raw, but damn, have you ever met a person that _just can't be satisfied_ with anything?? They utterly drain the lifeforce out of you.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
Ajit Pai would only be interested in "investing" in public WiFi if Comcast and Verizon were interested in rolling it out as some sort of paid expansion to their customers existing service plans. The guy is their corporate plant, remember?
Oh, please! Stop!
You have absolutely zero clue WTF you're talking about!
I *HAVE* a "Lifeline" plan!
You know what it consists of, you moron?
You get a 3G soapbar TracFone with text messaging. That's it. It's the cheapest TracFone plan. That's their precious "internet access for the poor". And guess what else? Text messages cost a significant fraction of the also-very-limited minutes (64? DR) each month if you use texting at all frequently. Cheaper minute-cost-wise to voice call. Coverage is crap as well as is text-service uptime. Maybe that's better in other areas, but it's held true in most of my State.
TracFone has been making bank off the government while foisting-off cheap junk and crap service onto the poor for way too long. This could be done far better for far, far less cost to taxpayers.
My lawn. Off of it, get.
I spent 6 months unemployed recently. Republican lawmakers in state have made collecting unemployment from a fund I've been paying into for 30 fucking years impossible for someone who wants to continue a career that pays well. Instead of looking for work in my field, I would have to spend all my time looking for menial labor and be able to PROVE it in order to collect benefits. Fortunately, I was able to make it through without doing that.
Fuck the GOP and anyone who supports them sideways with a fucking bandsaw.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
You forgot the tax cuts making the 1% a whopping 82% of the cuts as profit
Fraud and people who are not US citizens.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
If you grew up poor enough to know what hunger is like, there's pretty much zero chance that you didn't rely on all kinds of socialist programs to survive. Welfare, free school lunches, subsidized heat, electricity, healthcare, etc. Basically, you suckled at the public teat until you succeeded. And, now that you've gotten yours, everyone else in a rough spot can just crawl into a corner and die, right?
Also, what's this garbage about accusing the GP of being a parasite and trying to take your money? I get this mental image of a crazy old man on his porch in his rocking chair with a shotgun, pointing the gun at everyone who walks by one the sidewalk and screaming "keep on walkin'" at people just minding their own business. NEWSFLASH: people can have opinions about social programs without personally taking money from those programs.
Okay so you're selfish. No problem, lots of people are selfish. They want to know why they should pay taxes for the benefit of others. It's kind of simple really. It's because an orderly society is better for you!
Without welfare, you get more crime. The USA already incarcerates more people per capita than any other nation. A smart nation (e.g. any other nation on the planet) would spend more on mental health, on education, on healthcare, and on basic services such as internet access available for a reasonable cost.
Unfortunately the USA spends most of it's money on corporate cronyism, the military, and prisons. If the poor had any brains they'd have worked out a way to be born rich, etc. Fuck you, got mine.
Well isn't that great. At least you got yours, until the mob gets desperate enough to take what's yours.
P.S. It does work. There's nations where they have less crime, higher quality of living, more personal wealth, longer lifespans, and higher happiness than the USA. Perhaps this will come as a shock to you, but they also have cheaper faster broadband access!
Because a society with some degree of equality and opportunity for everyone is about a million times better than the fifth world nations that have been taken over by warlords.
The USA can go one of several ways. Currently it's going the way of the police state, but some of us would rather see it go a different path. Paying for some degree of public good with your taxes is, really, a trivial price to pay for a smoothly-functioning society.
Why do you pay for roads that everybody can use and some may be using more than you? Is this a serious question?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
"could not be confirmed as eligible" does not mean in my book "are fraud". Sounds to me you interpret it that way when the report does not explicitely state it.
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sure yes, like I already said but you had your had to far up your arse to realise.
Now answer this simple question: is that going to happen?
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Wow you're proposing something! That's incredible, no one ever has any ideas.
So poor people should be grateful to you when they lose broadband because you took positively minutes out of your busy schedule and wrote a slashdot post. If you spend as much as fifteen minutes a day here I'm sure we'll have all the world's problems fixed within a decade.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
In all fairness, it is not just Trump. Many administrations before intentionally kept people dumb enough to not ask any tough questions, but smart enough to be off welfare and happy with baseball and a six pack.
There is an alternative: homeschooling. Regulations are fairly lax, but still reasonable in most states. A lot of paperwork in NY and total insanity in PA. Some states even reimburse for homeschooling and offer the books for free. Especially in rural regions it is cheaper that way than bus students for hours to a school. Of course, if the parents already work full time jobs and a few side jobs just to get by then this isn't really an alternative.
Did Bill Gates win the birth canal lottery? How about Bezos? How about the hundreds of thousands of new millionaires created? You aren't very bright.
"...Jesus famously fed the hungry, but people also like to ignore that he said that people who do not work should not eat. It's a matter of personal responsibility and true fairness."
I was raised Christian. I would love to hear some quotes which support this. I can do a bit off Googling, oh here's one: https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/tenets.
"One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason."
oops, that's satanism.
Christian life is one of giving. Your own suffering doesn't matter. It's all about eternal life, personal relationship with God, selfless love, etc.
Or is it just a move in the vein of "F*** the Flyover States"
NRRPT/RCT
Yes, the USA is messed up in a lot of ways and refuses to intelligently discuss anything; maybe in the past, but no longer.
I have a cabin. It's in a rural area that didn't even get cell service until about 8 years ago. There is no internet, just a lousy old noisy phone line. I doubt dial-up would even go full speed. Maybe some slow cell internet is possible up there now but it's not that cheap. The locals seem to have many accidental fires and thefts and I'm beginning to think it's the two primary sources of income up there. (No business goes out of business there, they have a fire.) Seriously, the only jobs up there are tourism related - the farmers are all on corn welfare.
I have also done some online job applications involving session timeouts and rather large downloads. Will internet get them jobs so they can still boink their sisters without being noticed? I think not. But maybe they'll learn something? Me, I'd like access when I'm up there-- but you see, I go up there to ESCAPE like all the tourists.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Comcast does this already with its "public" WiFi from customer's home routers
horror vacui