What a trouble maker I am

I recently read an article on the Electronic Design website titled Broadband for Everyone. It talks about a report by the Federal Communications Commission (available here) to bring broadband technology (that is, fast network access) to more of the country. The Electronic Design article says that our country is progressing well in spreading fast Internet access to more people in the country and that government interference will only hurt our progress. The article also cites a study (available here) that says that most of the people that don't have broadband either don't want it or wouldn't be able to use it.

Well, I couldn't sit still for that. I had to write a comment:

"There are two problems with your article. First, you only paint the rosy picture that broadband and Internet use are growing in our country but you fail to mention that we are behind or not far ahead of other countries - our competitors. We should be further along than we are.

Second, you seem to be saying that most of the people who don't have broadband and Internet access either don't want it or couldn't use it. How many people had no use for the automobile and the telephone when they first came out? Cheap oil and Henry Ford helped the auto take hold but it took the government to help spread the telephone. Many people don't know what they are missing because they've never seen what a good broadband + Internet connection can do. Don't treat these people like some of our conservative friends treat the homeless - "Oh, they're homeless by choice. They wouldn't know what to do with a place of their own. They LIKE their freedom."

Simply leaving things to private industry is just handicapping our progress. Private industry, with help (or incentives or regulations) from the government, is a potent combination to move forward in technology. Checks and balances don't just work among the three branches of government. They help keep our government and our industries honest, too."

I can sympathize with people who don't like government interference. No one likes to be told what to do. It just drives me crazy, though, when people blindly reject any kind of government involvement. I used to work in the Federal Government (the United State Geological Survey - for 13 years) and I know how screwed up a government agency can be. I also know the good it can do. I have also dealt with large private companies and I know how screwed up they can be and I know the good they can do. I do not want to see the government, Federal, state and local, take over our lives but I also recognize that we need a balance to companies and industries (and foreign governments) that would like nothing better than to have unfettered influence over us. At least with our own government, we have a say and we can vote out a bad government. Try that with the directors of the company that built that refrigerator you bought that never worked right.