Of course, I'd want the private sector leading this charge moreso for the consumer side of the equation. Mr. Friedman wants the government to control it all. Not surprising, is it?
See also: Down to the Wire
Posted on 04/16/2005 5:41:29 AM PDT by rdb3
Of course, I'd want the private sector leading this charge moreso for the consumer side of the equation. Mr. Friedman wants the government to control it all. Not surprising, is it?
See also: Down to the Wire
A look at a terrain map will explain why we're not the world leader in broadband.
Korea and some small European countries are leading because, well, they're small. They're compact. It doesn't take much to give everyone broadband when your country is smaller than the average American state.
WiMax will do a lot to bring broadband to the Midwest and the Rockies.
You forget about the DemoRATS forced MaBell to provide Phone Service and Electral service to all the Rural counties in the US, thankfully we let the free market decide who gets what now.
The important thing is that the US is developing broadband capability privately. We'll get there soon enough.
Furthermore, I'm not sure whether government involvement would speed or slow the process.
Anyhow, the government should devote its efforts to its direct reponsibilities, like Social Security, illegal immigration, terrorism, etc.
Amazing! Yet another NYT scribe who doesn't understand our President?
Os there a pattern here?
Tax cuts are a win, should have been deeper. Personal accounts are a win. "Dismantling the New Deal" is cheap demagoguery. Ditto indulging creationism - as if that were even on the radar screen!
Sorry I don't understand what preventing expensing of stock options means, but I agree with Friedman if it just means policy should encourage startsups to grant stock options.
As far as the federal government spending money on basic research, or investing in broadband, I am not strongly opposed, particularly on broadband because it is an infrastructure investment. But the bang for the buck is not there because of the geography.
Because of the breakup of the best damn phone system in the world, we also trailed way behind in cell phone ownership and usage. I suppose we have caught up at this point.
Lots of the things the Europeans did faster and better because they are smaller and fewer.
Guessing we have tons more PCs per household than they will ever have - which may or may not be a good thing.
Ahh, what the government should do vs. what they actually do...
Don't worry, President to be Hillary (the "new and improved" version, read FAKE) will focus on illegal immigration, not to worry. But in reality, I haven't heard one politician, besides parroting the standard line, make a serious case on any issue. They must be too busy spending our money.
NEW DEAL MAKE-WORK LEADS TO HIGH-TECH ADVANCEMENTS
NEW DEAL MAKE-WORK LEADS TO HIGH-TECH ADVANCEMENTS
Don't we all know how Microsoft, Intel, Apple .... all started in the 1980 under Reagan's New Deal Socialism while the Soviet Union collapsed under tax-cuts and capitalistic individualism.
Little can be done to stop India and China from development. No need to arm wrestle with these two nations/cultures/third world juggernauts.
Nineteen thousand miles of border can't be sealed by any less than a million man army, national identity cards, mandatory passports and chip implants to verify identity.
Bush just nixed the Homeland Security idea of required passports to travel and return from Canada and France. He must be aware of the fear of "the mark of the beast" and how no one wants increased surveillance of our everyday lives.
Friedman is just another media hack, a member of the chattering classes who make a living writing whatever they can sell.
I have a Mac, and I upgraded it to Panther to get Safari because, with a cable modem, it's so much faster than IE for the Mac. And I may be tempted to upgrade to Tiger, for that reason and others. But I don't delude myself that faster photo downloads will help me have serious discussions in prose - which is what Freeping is all about.
Sounds like the Bush team is becoming the Taliban or Camor-Rouge(sp)
Tree huggers and greens should love the back to simpler times outlook.
Is his whole argument that the US is lagging based on the lack of leadership in broadband technology? That's a pretty thin argument if you ask me.
Has anyone heard of internet2? It is all drivel. This is the latest attack: lack of economic competivness due to them dumb christ lovers in the WH> It is particulalry comic given all of the internaltional give aways and idiotic fouses of the Democrat.
This has to be one of the most misleading statistics ever. The US is so far out in front of the world in internet usage, it is not funny. This statistic must be looking at broadband use as a percentage of total usage, but the US is so far ahead of everyone else in total usage as to make this statistic meaningless. It is kind of like comparing our 'poor' who has plenty of food, an apartment, and cable TV to the poor in Africa who hasn't a meal in 2 weeks and sleeps on dirt.
I think that is the arguement, but the statitic used has to be misleading. See my previous post.
That's a good point. Ultimately, the kind of information that's of value on the Internet is comprised of words, not pictures. In fact, I think it has helped revive the written word.
One of the big reasons we did not increase our broadband customer base as fast as countries like S.Korea is due to our over-regulation of the telecoms - somewhat by 'court order'. For instance, up until last year, due to court mandated regulations, the baby bells had to sell time on their networks to any third party telecom company that wanted to offer services - any services - and the baby bells could not charge them open market rates. Under that regime, there was little incentive to put out the capital to improve broadband networks, which your competitors could demand use of at a discounted cost. Finally, last year, the baby bells were allowed to start charging open market rates to third-party service providers who want to use their networks. Maybe you haven't noticed but advertisements for broadband connections now run at a much higher volumn than one year ago. Gee, open markets; there must be something to them, huh?
Beyond that, as others have mentioned, geography, culture and demographics will always play some role in how many people want/need/have use for any new technology.
One concern we should have is local governments trying to get into the industry on their own. Philadelphia is starting to wire their entire city for WiFi. By the time the last wire is laid and the last WiFi access point is installed, I have no doubt that the equipment will not be ready for the fastest WiFi standard that will then be available. And, what will the eventual monthly rate become, to all the actual Philly WiFi users, to make up for city WiFi infrastructure in areas with fewm or no users?
When do politicians ever pick the next best technology - no matter what is their political "philosophy"? Never.
Time-Warner is kicking tail in the broadband market here in Texas. I have Warner cable, Road-Runner Internet, and Voice over IP phone. I could order movies directly if they had anything I wanted to see.
It's a great deal. They invested in installing the glass about 10 years ago in this apartment complex, long before they were able to provide the service. I tried to go SWB, they still couldn't provide the service. They can go screw. I'm a cable fan, now.
I have the impression that the cable companies can't do this everywhere.
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