Sender: •••@••.••• (Glen Raphael) My fellow SMUG member Clint Craft (•••@••.•••) writes: >The >perceived value of unfettered competition is the lowest possible price >point for the "consumer." Yes. And also the highest possible level of service. The cheaper and better access gets, the easier it will be for the people who need it to get it. In a competitive market the needy won't even have to convince some bureaucrat that they need or deserve this service and the government won't have to pay people to decide that or keep track of it. [Note: Although I disagree with Clint on whether capitalism encourages or discourages pollution, wasteful use of resources, and concentration of wealth, these issues are not currently relevant to cyber-rights so we won't discuss them here.] >I'm >willing to accept Glen's call for an unfettered marketplace on one end of >the spectrum. I appreciate that, but I still question the following: >In exchange, I think the US goverment should underwrite loans >to enable every public library and every public school to have low cost >access to the internet(and ditto the UN on a world scale). As a firm advocate of decentralisation, I think the decision of whether a local library (whether it be public or private, and yes there do exist privately funded local community libraries) spends the funding it receives on providing access to the internet or just buying more books, should be left up to that library and its patrons and not the federal government. Truth to tell, it's still a lot easier to get useful information out of a local library full of books than Off The Net. The signal to noise ratio of a real library is MUCH higher. Surfing the net is a fun recreational activity, but hardly a necessity at this point. People who don't have even a $100 computer and $9.95 a month to spare on an AOL subscription are probably better off without the net, just as they are better off not taking up skiing or polo. Maybe ten years from now the net will become a necessity of life, but it's certainly not there yet. You mention the UN; do you REALLY think that people in Bangladesh need subsidized net access? And is this the FIRST thing they need? Personally, I wouldn't put it in the top 50. [I'm expecting many people to flame this last part. But before you flame, try to make an estimate of how many hours you spent on the net in the past year. Scary, isn't it? You probably could have written a book in that time. You could have had a second career, or spent more time with your family and friends, taken up a sport, art or hobby, or just been a lot more productive at work and gotten a raise or a better job. Am I right?] -- Glen Raphael, •••@••.••• President, Stanford/Palo Alto Macintosh User's Group <A HREF="http://www.batnet.com/liberty/raphael">Home Page</A><BR> ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by -- Andrew Oram -- •••@••.••• -- Cambridge, Mass., USA Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) World Wide Web: http://jasper.ora.com/andyo/cyber-rights/cyber-rights.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~hwh6k/public/cyber-rights.html FTP: ftp://jasper.ora.com/pub/andyo/cyber-rights You are encouraged to forward and cross-post messages and online materials, pursuant to any contained copyright & redistribution restrictions. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
