And pull themselves up by their bootstraps as usual?
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
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
Trump 2024, lol
(Edit: just to clarify–if you want all that bullshit, Trump is your man 🙌)
(Edit 2: /s would apparently have been the appropriate indicator of my lack of seriousness. TIL!)
if only there was a way to indicate sarcasm…
I can’t believe I’ve done this
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
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.
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. :/
the sad bit is, wireline internet providers could sell $30 per month high-speed internet and still make money at that lower rate and without subsidies.
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Always have money for war and bloodshed
And whenever they have control, more tax cuts for the rich.
Damn 30$ 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
That’s germany levels of shitty internet infrastructure. we pay 20€ for 100/60
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.
Wow. I’m in a competitive exurb market and I’m paying $60 for 1.5 Gbps. It’s $25 for 300. $40 for 600.
Damn, this is in a small town in the most northern parts of Sweden and the apartment building is locked down to only one supplier aswell.
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It is USD, pay 408 SEK where 58 is a invoice fee. Yeah, cannabis is very illegal here in Sweden but kinda easy to get hold of thanks to all the gangs.
I pay $100 a month in a rural area for 12down/500kup by bridging two DSL connections, the only thing I can get in the woods. I can’t watch Hulu and browse the Internet at the same time.
just so i get that right, you pay 100$/month for 12mbit/s down?
Correct. Insanity, right? Welcome to rural America.
I’m in an urban area where my apartment building is wired for only one ISP. $92 a month, the speed test I just did was 400 down, 20 up.
When I lived in Sacramento, CA I got 1gbps down, 15 Mbps up for like 100 bucks
An hour out into the rural areas and I pay 120 for 100 Mbps both ways ON FIBER
It’s infuriating
Just take it out of the oil and gas subsidies.
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I would say it’s neither a necessity, nor a luxury. It’s a necessity for for fitting in, in a modern society, though, for sure.
With the amount of companies requiring you to fill out applications online, emails being the main method of communication before a phone interview, and the amount of people doing virtual interviews; I would say it absolutely is a necessity to not just fitting into a modern society, but being a part of one.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I meant. But some people choose to live without it, or mostly without it, and live very fine lives. Additionally, one might lose internet for some period of time, but that would definitely not be life threatening, the same way losing access to food, clean water, clothes, etc.
No doubt that it’s necessary to be a part of a modern society, though.
It’s fair to say that losing internet access doesn’t cause you physical harm and won’t cause illness or death. In most cases (it’s pretty vital for hospitals, for example)
However, i dont believe those criteria should be the only ones used to deem something a necessity or even a basic human right.
It has become almost ubiquitous in the modern world and is almost a barrier for entry for a prosperous life.
It might not be necessary directly to sustaining a human life but it is, at least, indirectly. And at most it is directly necessary for a prosperous one.
Some people also probably deliver their trash to the dump themselves, and we can wait a week for the next pickup date without dying, but the assumption of regular garbage collection is still very important. I get what you’re saying but am not sure it’s a big enough point to warrant watering down the original poster’s point, ya know?
It’s not always a necessity, but the opportunity cost of not having Internet can prevent you from meeting other necessities. For example, a lot of jobs require Internet to apply. Not getting a better job might mean you can’t afford food or housing.
My education practically stopped in the 4th grade. I left school permanently in the 9th grade.
As a poor kid from Appalachia with no options to learn, having seen the kids around me who didn’t have it, I can’t imagine who I’d be without it.
Sure, I’m still an idiot, but I’ve been able to read books and study history that I would have had no access to whatsoever. I got to discover music and learn to play instruments. I have a decent understanding of technology while the friends that I grew up with struggle to use a phone.
I had an old Macintosh Quadra from a school auction that an older man gave me in 1997 and a wealthy uncle who shared his dialup login with me. The guy that gave me the Quadra also gave me several computers throughout my childhood from the 80s and would take my calls at any hour to walk me through DOS commands and things. I’m so thankful for his influence in my life.
I survived through my 20s by repairing computers. I would have been doomed to starve a thousand times if I didn’t have that skill.
I feel like it has absolutely been a necessity in my life.
It’s what Republican Jesus would do, fuck the poor. We could fund Israel’s war with all that wasteful spending!
brainrot-level take incoming: jesus was a jew, it’s obvious
referring to tax cuts for the rich
Both parties are the same!
Fucking poor people!! Have they tried NOT being poor!? Bunch of lazy entitled poors!! /s
We’re is this technology related? It’s completely political - something I don’t want to see, but now also technology cannot be followed anymore, as most things here are political news with a tech keyword in the headline sadly :/
But isn’t broadband access one of the main requirements for using technology? I understand not wanting to interact with politics, but nothing in our life is truly separated from it.
Politics is everything
If your kid is the better player but the coach picks his kid to be on the team then that’s politics
If company puts a paid OS on their IBM machines because it’s made by the son of someone on their board instead of the superior free option then that’s politics
…broadband Internet has nothing to do with technology?
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.
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