Internet services, computers, and life

In the past few posts, I’ve been talking about this idea of it being the government’s responsibility to pay for the cost of getting broadband access to “unserved and underserved” rural areas. The initial simplified look at this logic seems to make sense, but if you look at the truth behind the broadband stimulus argument, you will see that some over-generalizations have been made. Wrapping up, here is my conclusion, and a summary of the false assumptions that have been made in the creation of this idea.

False Assumption #1: Many people (especially rural residents) don’t have Internet access.

True Statement: Many people don’t have affordable broadband Internet services in their homes. But most of them can get Internet access in one way or another. There are thousands of rural homes who use dial-up because that’s the most affordable option to them, and certain types of broadband is not available to them. Sure, dial-up has limited capabilities, but you can still read news and other educational resources, send and receive emails, and load the majority of webpages.

False Assumption #2: Since the Internet provides so many educational and business-related resources and outlets, providing broadband to more homes would increase education and business.

True Statement: That’s a nice thought, and maybe in a small degree that would be true. But business and education are not the primary uses for the Internet. Most people use the Internet for fun and personal interests. People with broadband have even more fun. With live audio/video streaming at a flawless rate, you can watch movies, play games, listen to the radio, chat live using webcams with friends and random strangers, and the list goes on.

• Top 10 most popular websites—see what the majority of online users are doing.

• Top 25 uses for the Internet—see this list for more ways to waste time on the Internet.

When you have Internet access, you use it. When you have faster Internet access, you use it more—but don’t expect everyone to start being any more productive, smarter, or richer. How is this a pressing issue for the government (to the tune of over 7 billion dollars), considering what the majority of us are doing online?

False Assumption #3:The increasing use of the Internet for education and business justifies the government to grant billions of dollars to help make it available to everyone.

True Statement: Lets assume that everyone did use the Internet productivity, and that making it more available would boost the economy. Is it really the government’s duty to expand our educational and business resources? Let’s not pretend that education and business aren’t already in place! We are a capitalistic society, we’re supposed to do that for ourselves! Even if this stimulus plan did a world of good—and maybe ten years from now we’ll see that benefit—the government does not have a responsibility to pay for our Internet services.

Where is the government getting all this money anyway? Considering we are deeply (that’s an understatement!) in debt to multiple countries and our accumulated government debt balance grows by gigantic leaps and bounds, I’m afraid to ask!

This “lack of broadband” issue does not present some terrible crisis—people are just tired of dial-up or don’t want to spend a bunch of money for satellite. We aren’t dying or being threatened here! We are still farming, educating, conducting business, and communicating—even if some of us are still using books or have to go to the library to check our email. We’ll find ways to connect to the Internet and develop new ways of spreading broadband to rural areas on our own. Please. Leave the government out of this!