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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.
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
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.
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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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.
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 is my responsibility as a taxpayer to fund wars in other countries. Suck it up snowflake. The entire budget it the cost of one fighter jet.
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
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
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.
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.