SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
For decades, people in the US have been given a song and dance by the telecoms about how tax cuts, surcharges, and a long list of other expenses are necessary for telecoms to "invest" in infrastructure. The concessions are granted again and again, but the investments are never actually made. In all, US taxpayers have paid $400 Billion in taxes and Internet surcharges for fiber optic upgrades that never happened.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Americans Taxed $400 Billion For Fiber Optic Internet That Doesn’t Exist
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 220 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Did you move a lot of KOREAN STEAK KNIVES this trip, Dingy?
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday December 06 2017, @09:32AM (5 children)
Nope.
Despite what you think, you're free to do what you like, wherever you are.
I'm going to go to Heinlein again [goodreads.com]:
I believe this and have for a *long* time. The key phrase is "...I alone am morally responsible for everything I do."
This conversation has been fun. Thanks.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 06 2017, @03:02PM (4 children)
Likewise, I have enjoyed our conversation and am starting to have my mind changed yet again in regards to your reasonableness.
On a side note, I was a rabid fan of Heinlein (probably still am, but I'm finding his lack of new works unsettling). In addition to his thought-provoking better-known novels, I started to pick up a bit of the arc of his changing viewpoint on life throughout the time he spent writing his books. Take Back Your Government [wikipedia.org] had him as a Democrat (albeit of the 1930s era), and one of his earlier novels made an intriguing case for central government control of currency along with the equivalent of a "living wage", not something I'd expect most to see from an author with a general reputation for being a foaming-at-the-mouth individualist. His account of his own behavior juxtaposed with his wife's during their world tour in Tramp Royale [wikipedia.org] was almost startling.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday December 06 2017, @09:25PM (3 children)
I've read them both, and as many of his published works as I've been able to find over the years. Heck, I even wrote a research paper about aspects of his work in secondary school.
And you should read "Take Back Your Government" again. It doesn't advocate *anything* like you advocate.
And yes, Heinlein correctly predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union thirty years before it happened. He was a pretty smart guy.
What's more, except in fictional (and not in all of those) settings, Heinlein believed in our republican (small 'r') form of government.
Were Heinlein still alive (it sucks that death causes writer's block), I'd be interested in what he'd have to say to you. I imagine it would be more concise and less accommodating to you than I have been.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @06:15AM (2 children)
I am not using an appeal to authority, not Heinlein's nor anyone elses'. I can make my own case for my own argument with my own words. [soylentnews.org]
Holding Robert Heinlein out as some sort of prophet, rather than as someone with thought-provoking ideas filling his books, is dangerous to critical thinking. Trying to use a book written in the 1960s based on political experiences from the 1930s which was dug up and published in the 1990s as a unflinching standard for advice in 2017 is illustrative of the danger.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by NotSanguine on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:09AM (1 child)
WTF are you blathering on about?
Yes, Heinlein was a smart guy. But I didn't recommend his books to you. Nor did I hold him out as some sort of prophetic thinker.
He wrote well, told some good stories, and had some insight into human nature.
Don't try to put words in my mouth.
Go fuck yourself Scrutinizer. I'm sick of this conversation and I'm sick of your inane and naive blather. Go bug someone else.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 07 2017, @07:20AM
You did.