Posted on 06/25/2005 9:08:44 AM PDT by mathprof
IT looked for a while as if the United States was firmly entrenched as the world's leader in Internet innovation. President Bill Clinton and Al Gore, his vice president, did much to encourage development of the country's technology infrastructure, writes Thomas Bleha in an article accessible on the Foreign Affairs magazine Web site (www.foreignaffairs.org).
From the 1960's until the day President Bush took office, he writes, "The United States led the world in Internet development."
No longer. The Bush administration's policies, or lack thereof, have since allowed Asia - Japan in particular - to not only catch up in the development and expansion of broadband and mobile phone technology, but to roundly pound us into the dirt. "The lag," he diplomatically asserts, "is arguably the result of the Bush administration's failure to make a priority of developing these networks."
Japan instituted what used to be called an industrial policy, which provided incentives for expanding broadband and wireless technology to the masses. The United States, meanwhile, has done essentially nothing. Japan is now well ahead of us in the percentage of homes with broadband. And their broadband on average is about half the price and 16 times the speed of ours.
Japan is even further ahead in mobile telephony. "U.S. mobile phone service remains awful by European, let alone Japanese, standards," writes Mr. Bleha, who served as a Foreign Service officer in Japan for eight years and has a forthcoming book on the subject.
Meanwhile, Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries are poised to leap ahead of the United States in any number of areas: teleconferencing, telecommuting, remote medical services, distance education, multimedia entertainment.
The economy as a whole is at risk because of broadband shortcomings, says Charles H. Ferguson of the Brookings Institution.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Why can't Bush be like the inventor of the internet, Al Gore?
Blame Bush first!
"No longer. The Bush administration's policies, or lack thereof, have since allowed Asia - Japan in particular - to not only catch up in the development and expansion of broadband and mobile phone technology, but to roundly pound us into the dirt. "The lag," he diplomatically asserts, "is arguably the result of the Bush administration's failure to make a priority of developing these networks."
Gee, what a shock. A country smaller than california has been able to wire more of its homes, businesses, and cities than the entire United states. Amazing how that works.
All this development in tech in SKorea--and what you get are armies of people playing online role-playing games.
or using online chat webcams to look at one another's naughty parts.
1. Internet technology leadership is NOT measured solely by how many homes have broadband. It should be measured by how effectively it supports commerce...and 80% of all internet commerce is conducted within the US...and, coincidently, 80% of the "internet" (as measured by gigabit miles) resides in the US or is operated by a US carrier.
2. Telcom regs in the US STIFLED our "last mile" development. Until '99 any local exchange carrier (read: Baby Bell) who plowed fiber into the ground was REQUIRED to sell access to said facilities to all their competetors, at their cost plus 12%. It made cabling infrastructure investments by the LECs VERY BAD investments.
What a foolish statement. There's nothing "diplomatic" about that lie. Does he support his assertion with any evidence? I couldn't make it past the first page of his "analysis" (see the article here) because its tone was so laughably unbalanced and anti-Bush.
Thanks to Algore, Americans have been taxed (WAY past Dubya's first day) to hook up everyone to the internet. Where did that loot go?
Nation’s Largest Taxpayer Group Unveils Campaign to Repeal Phone Tax for Internet Subsidies:
Group’s Web Site www.goretax.com to Serve as Clearinghouse for News and Views
Tuesday, August 18, 1998
(Washington, DC) As lawmakers prepare to return to Washington and debate legislation that includes Internet subsidies for schools, libraries, and rural areas, the 300,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has formally launched an Internet-based campaign aimed at stopping the tax that funds the transfer scheme the E-Rate of up to 5% on business and residential long distance phone services.
With all their talk of tax cuts, politicians were probably hoping thisfederal phone tax would slip by unnoticed, said NTU President John Berthoud. But our new Web site, www.goretax.com, has got their number. Soon Internet users across America will be urging Vice President Gore and Congress to hang up on this new tax.
The campaign’s Web site, based at www.goretax.com, will serve as a clearinghouse for online news and commentary for and against the tax. It will also include a number of interactive mechanisms designed to mobilize opponents of the tax, such as an online opinion poll, an online petition, and Electronic Bumperstickers for citizens to put on their personal home pages.
Home Internet users are the hardest-hit by this tax, Berthoud observed. As a leading innovator in reaching out to citizens at the grassroots, National Taxpayers Union is taking the next step reaching out to ‘Netizens.' The site was developed by Washington Webworks, LLC, an Alexandria,VA-based company that specializes in Internet public affairs.
WWW.GoreTax.com is the latest addition to an ongoing NTU effort to repeal the E-rate, return Internet access funding choices to communities, and prevent predatory tax policies toward Internet commerce. On February 26, Berthoud testified to Congress that the E-rate violates any and all basic tenets of democratic representation because it allows unelected officials to levy taxes on the American public.
When Washington makes policy, it arrives in a one-size-fits-all package, and local education needs are as diverse as America’s student population Berthoud added. Funding for wiring of classrooms to the Internet should come from the communities, not from the top down.
The E-Rate, known to many as the Gore Tax, was imposed via levies on the telephone companies by the FCC to support Vice President Gore’s initiative of connecting every school classroom to the Internet. Congressional leaders have criticized the program as a back-door tax imposed without direct
Congressional consent and the General Accounting Office has stated that the FCC illegally created two of the corporations that administer the program.
The FCC has gone so far as to prevent phone companies from informing customers of the true nature of the Gore Tax, even though the charge is passed along to them, Berthoud concluded. This stealth taxation deprives Americans of the information they need to make thoughtful choices about the federal government’s role in subsidizing Internet access. WWW.GoreTax.com is designed to fill this gap.
National Taxpayers Union, a non-profit, non-partisan citizen organization founded in 1969, works for lower taxes, less wasteful spending, taxpayer rights, and accountable government at all levels. Information on NTU’s other programs is available on-line at www.ntu.org.
http://www.techlawjournal.com/agencies/slc/80818ntu.htm
Typical liberal drool.
It's not the governments job to create industry, It's the function of private business, entrepreneurs, inventors to expand and develop markets, build business and innovations.
Just what is the government supposed to do? Create another department of government employee's ? What will that do? Besides, I'm sure it already exists.
And Clinton and Al-Gore had nothing to do with the growth of the internet and technology, it happen despite them.
It was ordinary people like us, and our local BBS which seeded the growth of the internet.
While the Dear Leader to the north entwines his tentacles ever deeper into their society.
The fact that we have broadband (cable internet) here at home, and we're hardly wealthy proves that this article is just a steamig heap of BS!!!
Not only that, but also a country with static demographics and a relatively new infrastructure and very highly urbanized to boot.
Naturaly, the Rimes is always drawn to state-directed solutions. Every problem looks like a nail when the only tool you like to use is a hammer.
And to top it off, Mr. Gore's program wired my kids school to the internet. Only problem, no IT program and no computers to hook up to it.
For my son's kindergarten class, I found a perfectly good iMac on craigslist for $40.00 and my wife donated software she earned by volunteering for scholastic book fair.
The computer still isn't hooked to the internet, because the school would never be able to figure out some type of Child Guard system and what do kindergarteners need with internet access. But it does teach the kids how to point and click with the mouse, and the games teach reading and math skills.
Don't you people understand how this works? If private individuals have to pay private corporations to supply them with internet access, it's expensive and the rate of adoption for new technology is slow.
But everyone knows that when the government supplies internet access to everyone, it's FREE! Nobody has to pay anything, and everyone gets it!
You stupid, greedy, capitalists... always missing out on the concept of government freebies.
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