The official pupose of giving phone service is to allow them to apply for jobs and get call-backs from employers.
************
Originally it’s purpose was to allow contact with emergency services.. obviously the scope was expanded ... we just need to abolish it as small minute phone plans are available for a very low price now... or once again make it landline service based.
Exactly. See my post at #31. It was originally meant to help people with medical issues and emergency issues in rural areas to use the phone network.
Sounds kind of...reasonable.
And then, like any well intentioned, government administered free money, it grew like a cancer, created by the reprehensible FDR’s big government administration, having a new head bolted on in 1985, and replaced again in 2005, and going viral on steroids under the Obama Administration.
The landline limitation is gone for good, they are busy throwing the dirt on it, and engaging in a D-Day like push to have this expanded to include cable and Internet access for those who "can't afford it".
It is redistribution of wealth, plain and simple.
There are many of us who don't see a big of a problem in giving people who need help access to basic foodstuffs such as flour, milk, etc. but we feel our blood pressure go up when we go into a store (as I did near me, where I took this picture):
I see this telecommunication BS in exactly the same light. I wouldn't have as much of a problem with helping elderly people on a fixed income who can't pay for their meds, heat, and telephone to meet their landline expenses for a variety of purposes.
Where I do have a problem is where this expands into cell phones with texting and data plans, cable access, and Internet access, because it is "just, right, and fair" (from the FCC's own statement about the Lifeline Program, which made me want to puke)