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from the are-utilities-really-optional dept.
Broadband Internet access is a "core utility" that people need in order to participate in modern society– just like electricity, running water, and sewers, the White House said on Tuesday. A report written by the Broadband Opportunity Council, a group created earlier this year by President Obama and co-chaired by the Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture, says that even though broadband "has steadily shifted from an optional amenity to a core utility," millions of Americans still lack high-speed Internet access.
The report cites 2013 data indicating that about 51 million Americans, or about 16 percent of the population, cannot purchase broadband access at their homes. That number may have dropped by now, but the White House says the government needs to make a bigger push to expand broadband deployment, especially in rural areas and low-income communities.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday September 24 2015, @05:42PM
There are services that are being moved completely online. Even just applying for most jobs requires access to the internet. Public libraries, where they exist, do help, but for single parents, they might not have time to do job hunting for a better job when the libraries are open.
In the long run, it's better for everybody to just declare the internet to be a core utility so we don't have to maintain a separate set of things for people that can't afford it. Providing basic internet to the poor is relatively inexpensive in urban areas anyways. The real expense of this would be in the rural areas. And even there it's not that expensive if wireless is an acceptable means of providing it. a couple gigs of wireless data can be provided for relatively little in most parts of the world.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday September 24 2015, @06:10PM
So? Job hunting used to involve newspapers, should those have been made a 'core' utility? Of course as government subsidized entities we wouldn't be looking forward to their richly deserved demise. The bigger point though is that lots of things are very useful, pretty much required. We should not mandate that the government should seize these things from some and give them to those without them.
Access to the Internet is already cheap and widely available in just about any location where it is economically viable to provide it and available via Sat and other wireless in the rest. If something is useful, it isn't unreasonable to ask people to actually PAY for it. Paying for things or passing them by, ie. choosing, is how the Free Market discovers prices.
If you look there are some really cheap ways to get Internet access. Slow? Oh yea. So is it your position that not only is the Internet a basic human right but that fast (as defined by who) Internet is a Right? Where does this insanity end? Is Netflix going to be a Right? When the Internet drives broadcast TV out do you change your mind? What principle governs you other than feelz?
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday September 24 2015, @06:28PM
Newspapers could be had for free if you didn't mind scrounging one out of the garbage. They could also be shared among a group of people easily and when the person who was reading it was done, they'd often times give it away. Back in those days folks could also walk into various businesses and ask if they were hiring.
The point you're deliberately missing here, is that it's no longer true. Most businesses only advertise online and they only accept applications online. Even if you do show up at their place of business, they probably won't accept the application.
And I'm not sure where you live, but around here you have to have a job and money to pay for things. I would definitely consider it to be unreasonable to expect somebody making minimum wage or less to be able to afford internet without being given some sort of a subsidy.
And your proposition is basically fuck those that don't have any money. I'd love to be there to see what you do if you ever lose your job and have to make use of welfare. I'd be really curious to see what the reaction is when you realize how many things you're locked out of by virtue of not having money.