Imagine living in the 2020's in the developed world and not realizing that internet access is a basic necessity.
Then imagine being the sort of person who would deny poor people basic necessities
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
503 points (94.5% liked)
Technology
59679 readers
3431 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
cough healthcare cough
Might want to get that cough checked out. ...unless you're in America, in which case you probably couldn't afford it.
Best I can do is an aspirin I found on the train and sleep it off.
Sleep? What do you think this is, a spa?
Get back to work, paid sick days are just a myth perpetuated by the evil socialist europeans. Don't look it up.
If you don’t come into work today you are going to put undue burden on all of your coworkers. It’s certainly not my fault for staffing to the absolute bare minimum so that there is no room for people to be sick or take days off, it’s your fault for being a lazy worker
Oh you're insisting you can't come in because you are sick? I'm going to need a doctor's note that will cost you a day's wages.
They know full well that internet is a necessity to participate in society.
That is why they are blocking it with every fibre of their being.
To them, poor people are poor because god is angry at them. They deserve to be poor.
It's not that nefarious, it's more "we're a bunch of wealthy assholes and we know the best way to make the most money without having to actually make something worth a shit is to privatize necessities and then monopolize them. You literally need to buy from me! Also, you lot don't work hard enough."
I hate these people with every fiber of my being.
basic necessity
Did you misspell guaranteed revenue? They know exactly what they were doing.
Imagine living in the 2020’s in the developed world and not realizing that internet access is a basic necessity.
Then imagine being the sort of person who would deny poor people basic necessities
Standard Republican Worldview
My mom works with internet people. I remember when I was a kid she was making fun of them for saying internet should be a basic human right. Nowadays, it would be hard to find someone who doesn't think that lol
load more comments
(3 replies)
Nationalize internet.
Hows about "Create local and municipal fiber to the curb to stoke competition and drive down prices" instead ?
Markets are extremely bad when it comes to proper allocation of essentials. Infrastructure in general should be nationalized at minimum, and heavily invested in.
The local fiber provider skipped my street altogether because spectrum has a contract with the apartments, and they don't think it's worth running fiber to compete. I wish this was a joke. The providers are literally NOT competing at all. Residential homeowners are screwed because spectrum has a chokehold on the other half of the neighborhood.
It's literally a fucking necessity so if course it's privately owned... It's so ridiculous how we treat necessities... Tell me what job you can apply to that doesn't require it to be done over the Internet?
I remember when I could walk in to a store and shake the managers hand, then things changed and I got looked at like I was crazy "just go online and apply, why are you here?"
Full agreement, way ahead of you. Instead of having a robust, publicly funded infrastructure-based necessity (internet service), it gets chopped up and sold piece-by-piece with price-gouging and local monopolies like warlords.
Yuuup. Looking at you optimum. I have one option. :/
My coop power company installed fiber, so my ISP is a coop. IMO I'd rather this that purely nationalized.
Co-ops are cool, but markets in general have far too many disadvantages for me to advocate for market-based Socialism over a non-market solution.
Short of a complete revolution, market Socialisim is probably the most viable path out of capitalism. It doesn't have to stay there, and shouldn't, but it'll be a whole lot less messy than a revolution.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Nice where do you live
Mississippi
the sad bit is, wireline internet providers could sell $30 per month high-speed internet and still make money at that lower rate and without subsidies.
Every penny that goes to social programs to help the poor is a penny that isn't going to corporations and their billionaire donors. Of course they want to cancel it, along with social security, medicare and public libraries.
MORE GOD BLESSED MILITARY GROWTH
Always have money for war and bloodshed
And whenever they have control, more tax cuts for the rich.
Damn 30$ discount. How much do you pay in the states for broadband access. I pay about 40$ each month for a 500/500 connection.
In a city a connection like that is probably going to be in the area of $60 to $100. I pay $80 all in for a similar fiber connection.
Outside of a city you just aren't going to get it.
There are a few places that have Community ISPs where it will be substantially less expensive, but those are the exceptions and many states have actually made it illegal to operate community ISPs.
Jesus Christ that all sounds terrible
load more comments
(1 replies)
Just got fiber in my area of the US, it’s $60 for 500/500, or $80 for 1000/1000
paying almost $90 now, here, for supposedly 300mbps (downstream) that barely ever gets past 60. there are people near me that pay about the same for 1mbps or less dsl (just outside of cable's territory, so dsl is all they have)
That goes for about $70 here, in a competitive, urban market. $50 for 300.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
Just take it out of the oil and gas subsidies.
Wasn't there a debate awhile ago that internet is a necessity rather than a luxury?
load more comments
(7 replies)
It’s what Republican Jesus would do, fuck the poor. We could fund Israel’s war with all that wasteful spending!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Fucking poor people!! Have they tried NOT being poor!? Bunch of lazy entitled poors!! /s
Both parties are the same!
Lot of Republican governors of states that signed a letter urging this subsidy to be renewed. Seriously, broadband subsidies for rural areas should be renewed.
Lmao, their problem with it, is that the vast majority of people using the ACP already had Internet before signing up....Which just proves how much of a necessity Internet is.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Republican members of Congress blasted a program that gives $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes, accusing the Federal Communications Commission of being "wasteful."
The lawmakers suggested in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that they may try to block funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is expected to run out of money in April 2024.
The letter questioned Rosenworcel's testimony at a recent House hearing in which she warned that 25 million households could lose Internet access if Congress doesn't renew the ACP discounts.
"At a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on November 30, 2023, you asserted—without evidence and contrary to the FCC's own data—that '25 million households' would be 'unplug[ged]…from the Internet' if Congress does not provide new funding for the ACP," the letter said.
As Congress considers the future of taxpayer broadband subsidies, we ask you to correct the hearing record and make public accurate information about the ACP."
Unfortunately, your testimony pushes "facts" about the ACP that are deeply misleading and have the potential to exacerbate the fiscal crisis without producing meaningful benefits to the American consumer.
The original article contains 546 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
view more: next ›