Broadband Rights & the Killer App of 1900

newscloud writes "Tech writer Glenn Fleishman compares the arguments against affordable, high speed, broadband Internet access in each home to arguments made against providing for common access to electricity in 1900 e.g. '...electric light is not a necessity for every member of the community. It is not the business of any one to see that I use electricity, or gas, or oil in my house, or even that I use any form of artificial light at all.' Says Fleishman, 'Electricity should go to people who had money, not hooked up willy-nilly to everyone ... Like electricity, the notion of whether broadband is an inherent right and necessity of every citizen is up for grabs in the US. Sweden and Finland have already answered the question: It's a birthright.'"

Bah!

[Anonymous Coward]

The killer app was stereoscopic pictures of women showing their ankles.

One step.

[Thanshin]

A step in the right direction.

1 - Right to broadband.
2 - Human right to broadband.
3 - Human right to porn.
4 - Human right to 3D multi-sensorial porn.
5 - Ascension of mankind to a new state of consciousness and peace with the universe.

We should have listened to this wisdom

[Junior J. Junior III]

If electricity hadn't become ubiquitous, we'd have a lot less carbon being emitted today from power plants.

Re:Suddenly, everything is a right

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Free speech, the right to bear arms, a common trait of all things that are actually rights is that they do not cost money. They are intangible.

You do not have a right to tangible things. They cost money. All you can do is help lower costs so you can afford them.

So I can have guns even if have no money? Hurray? Where do I collect my Beretta? I am going to call it Sweetness. You can't copyright that name, Steven Colbert!

Re:Same Arguments, So Simply Discredit Them

[minsk]

"I mean, traveling scam artists were well known to people at the time"

Little did they know that electricity, and the ensuing advances in technology, would remove the need for scam artists to travel :)

Re:Sounds familiar

[Rogerborg]

I completely agree with you, and thank you for saying what we're all thinking: now that I've got broadband - and health cover - screw everyone else. Filthy penniless scrounging hillbilly hippies; if they're going to die, they had better do it now, and decrease the surplus contention.

Re:Same Arguments, So Simply Discredit Them

[sakdoctor]

Everyone benefits from fast pr0n. It's our birthright.

Re:Bah!

[Culture20]

The killer app was stereoscopic pictures of women showing their ankles.

Oh, hot! She's voting! Yeah, you break all the rules.

Re:Bah!

[bkr1_2k]

If you were wearing neon in 1993 and watching spandex aerobics, it's no wonder you ended up on slashdot. Good grief!

Cost control

[StealthSock]

Before and during FDR's administration, the free market electric company shills argued that providing "socialized electricity" would be a disaster financially since generating electricity was supposedly so expensive that there was no way the government could provide cheaper service. To back up their claims, they pointed to a few mismanaged municipal electric programs as proof that it could never work. In reality, many of the electric companies were enjoying fat monopolies and wanted to keep their operations small scale so they could keep prices high. The government finally stepped in during the 1930's and proved that electricity did not have to be so expensive if the provider did not have profit as their only motivation. This sounds so familiar to another debate over other services that should or should not be "socialized" come to think of it...