+1 I totally agree with your accurate view!

Austin R.: Spam-free is nice and please note my previous remark about advertising was about the typical activist-advocates and their likely hypocrisy here given who these folks are.

If the Messiah works his economic miracle and frees us to pursue more ambitious lefty goals, yes, this will be identified as part of the “digital divide” with the solution to it being obvious, asking your question _and_ replying forcefully in the affirmative.

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“Let me put it another way. The government builds highways for free public use… so why shouldn't they build information highways?”

Well, that's cheap equivocation and I know you're capable of better, but the actual point you're making is valid enough — provide communication infrastructure as well as transportation infrastructure (and services, in the case of, say, air traffic control). As a matter of fact, I have long thought about this, not necessarily to support or resist the concept but in thinking that, in an ideal revisional-historical world, someone like Jefferson would like seeing a PC in the hands of everyone (especially children) while specifically, Hamilton would probably like a federal comm-net. (He'd consider it “national,” of course; he was our premier as well as early nationalist.)

GD, “Well, as long as my kids can still access graphic violence on the web…”

Agreed.

Like SD, I think this is a terrible idea and the government would end up hurting businesses from small local ISPs to nation wide telcom & cable companies. Not to mention the poor porn industry (LOL).

The government is already in the business of libraries, tv channels, radio stations, etc. This would just remove another barrier for low-income families to getting on the web, which has become an integral part of our society.

Let me put it another way. The government builds highways for free public use… so why shouldn't they build information highways?

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