I think my point still stands. The government has to get involved in some way, is what I tried to say.
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to get government investment when there's a pretty straightforward assessment of high cash return on investment pretty damn soon. For the US there'd be some monetary return as increased internet access has been shown to increase entrepreneurialism and a recognizable rise in GDP (though I forget the relationship offhand) for developing countries, but on the whole it'd mostly result in a public good rather than a better standing for the treasury.
The answer is sure, absolutely it'd create jobs. Somebody has to do the work, after all, you can't just plant money in the ground and grow network cable.
Federal jobs programs are not doing so well these days, though.
I don't want to derail the thread too much on this, so in keeping with the theme of this thread, why is this so?
Assumed governmental waste. Private industry does it better. Neither of which are really true, but it's politics.
The answer is sure, absolutely it'd create jobs. Somebody has to do the work, after all, you can't just plant money in the ground and grow network cable.
Federal jobs programs are not doing so well these days, though.
I don't want to derail the thread too much on this, so in keeping with the theme of this thread, why is this so?
Ronald Reagan.
And, to be honest, it isn't really all that bad a circumstance. Like, say, China; Robert Moses got shit done. But more often than not it was the wrong shit to be doing.
The answer is sure, absolutely it'd create jobs. Somebody has to do the work, after all, you can't just plant money in the ground and grow network cable.
Federal jobs programs are not doing so well these days, though.
I don't want to derail the thread too much on this, so in keeping with the theme of this thread, why is this so?
Assumed governmental waste. Private industry does it better. Neither of which are really true, but it's politics.
Well, the whole idea is that when private industry screws up you wasted some sucker's money but when the government screws up you wasted everybody's money. Plus market economies with a social safety net are better than command economies and abloo bloo socialism thread bloo. In general that's for the best, its just that there are a number of times when it isn't the case an natural monopolies like roads and utilities (and broadband internet) are one of them.
For some idiotic reason we tend to like falling in between the good ideas all the time. Either we should just have a straight up federally mandated and controlled tele-comm monopoly and charge it with providing everyone good internet service the same way AT&T was charged with providing everyone a phone line, or we should have common carrier requirements so tons of isp's compete with each other and lower the prices like Senj said. Instead we've got an oligopoly. Which is the worst of both worlds.
Rural Utility Service. It and FDR are the reason why you can turn your lights on.
I think this is why my folks have running water, as well.
Maybe. I mean, they do work on/subsidize water/sewer as well as electricity and phone lines (also, the post office's rural routes originally but I think that got moved around a lot) but they could just as easily be on a well and septic tank setup.
Regardless, the point is that the reason our agrarian parts aren't as bad as developing nations (well, in infrastructure at least) is due to massive and protracted subsidies from urban areas. Internet connectivity is not going to escape this dynamic either.
The problem here is I don't get access to thing. I don't even have pizza delivery for Christ's sake, and I'm 7 minutes from the nearest pizza place.
Edit - So to reiterate: The problem isn't the cost, the problem is things simply not being there to begin with. How can I pay for something if it's not offered or there?
The cost to provide fast internet to your house is probably in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and labor.
So I don't think you're really prepared to pay for it.
This is why I noted in the OP we're fairly well-housed here. There's also a municipal airport across the street from me (the actual field for it is, that is). We're "rural" in that we're outside of the city limits. It's arbitrary stupid semantics that are keeping us from being up to speed with the city itself (not that it's much better there).
No it's not arbitrary, and if it's that big of a deal you should try to get annexed by the city.
Except you'll (probably) have to pay much higher taxes which is frequently why communities resist being annexed, and why cities frequently try to annex surrounding communities. But, if you are annexed, you'll probably have access to better services!
I'm not a property owner so I don't give a fuck, annex away.
Property taxes aren't the only type of taxes, and in any case, if property taxes went up, your rent will probably be raised to compensate.
As far as city taxes go, not only is their real estate tax, but I also pay income tax and sales tax. Services be expensive, yo (but totally worth it)
Posts
It's just too expensive to service them out there. If there weren't massive subsidies for power, water and telephone, they wouldn't have that either.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Are they finding the tinfoil effective or did they have to splurge for the lead paneling?
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to get government investment when there's a pretty straightforward assessment of high cash return on investment pretty damn soon. For the US there'd be some monetary return as increased internet access has been shown to increase entrepreneurialism and a recognizable rise in GDP (though I forget the relationship offhand) for developing countries, but on the whole it'd mostly result in a public good rather than a better standing for the treasury.
Assumed governmental waste. Private industry does it better. Neither of which are really true, but it's politics.
Oh, and stimulus money thru http://www2.ntia.doc.gov/ made this Texas broadband map possible: http://www.connectedtx.org/mapping/_interactive_map_interface/?q=map
Ronald Reagan.
And, to be honest, it isn't really all that bad a circumstance. Like, say, China; Robert Moses got shit done. But more often than not it was the wrong shit to be doing.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Well, the whole idea is that when private industry screws up you wasted some sucker's money but when the government screws up you wasted everybody's money. Plus market economies with a social safety net are better than command economies and abloo bloo socialism thread bloo. In general that's for the best, its just that there are a number of times when it isn't the case an natural monopolies like roads and utilities (and broadband internet) are one of them.
For some idiotic reason we tend to like falling in between the good ideas all the time. Either we should just have a straight up federally mandated and controlled tele-comm monopoly and charge it with providing everyone good internet service the same way AT&T was charged with providing everyone a phone line, or we should have common carrier requirements so tons of isp's compete with each other and lower the prices like Senj said. Instead we've got an oligopoly. Which is the worst of both worlds.
Maybe. I mean, they do work on/subsidize water/sewer as well as electricity and phone lines (also, the post office's rural routes originally but I think that got moved around a lot) but they could just as easily be on a well and septic tank setup.
Regardless, the point is that the reason our agrarian parts aren't as bad as developing nations (well, in infrastructure at least) is due to massive and protracted subsidies from urban areas. Internet connectivity is not going to escape this dynamic either.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Comcast is seriously good here. It's scary given all the horror stories I've heard from mon/duopoly victims.
What we need is either more government or more competition.
edit: Apparently I can already get Clear 3G. O:
The only people I know that have Comcast are people who live in an apartment tower that doesn't give them a choice of provider.
Pretty sure most people bad mouth FDR for Executive Order 9066. And rightly so.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Public Internet Option?
Property taxes aren't the only type of taxes, and in any case, if property taxes went up, your rent will probably be raised to compensate.
As far as city taxes go, not only is their real estate tax, but I also pay income tax and sales tax. Services be expensive, yo (but totally worth it)