The Decline of Rural Oregon (tax, price, electricity)

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Try applying for a job, attending public school during a pandemic, applying for unemployment, buying health insurance, applying for college, or any of a thousand different other tasks without having internet access.

Do we just write off the kids who, through no fault of their own, happen to live more than 2 km outside the town borders?

Don't be so melodramatic. Hell internet is "free" in coffee shops. The items you mention are relatively easily available to ANYONE with a little gumption and/or a few dollars in their pocket. The taxpayer does NOT have to ensure every person (Legal or illegal) has access to something someone else does.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

Don't be so melodramatic. Hell internet is "free" in coffee shops. ...

Are you currently in a rural 24x7 coffee shop?

I find them hard to come by in Covid.

It's the USA !
Average Tax payer does not have to pay for rural internet.

[redguard57]

Before the public library movement of the mid-late 19th century, libraries were either private, or subscription based. Like a club you'd buy into. Some still exist, such as the Boston Athanaeum. It is a quite beautiful space that I would most definitely pay the $500 a year to use if I lived in Boston.

But it is not a public resource, which is the point of the "public" designation.

[JackieLovesSun]

A good public library is the sign of a civilized society.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Are you currently in a rural 24x7 coffee shop?

I find them hard to come by in Covid.

It's the USA !
Average Tax payer does not have to pay for rural internet.

Then the folks living there can pay for it I guess should they desire this attribute - No problem with that.
I believe you are incorrect though in that the taxpayer does pay for rural internet through a myriad of phone taxes and other fees.

I guess we are dithering about definition of "taxpayer".

[forsheamountain]

I drove a bookmobile for a year in a rural area of the mountain west. It was a fun job.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

Then the folks living there can pay for it I guess should they desire this attribute - No problem with that.
I believe you are incorrect though in that the taxpayer does pay for rural internet through a myriad of phone taxes and other fees.

I guess we are dithering about definition of "taxpayer".

I'm sure none of the infrastructure that you rely on in your daily life: Electrical power, sewer, water, fire, police, highways, ports, bridges, airports, food safety, hospitals, schools, environmental protection, etc. etc. etc. was paid for or subsidized by tax dollars was it?

But yeah. Poor rural kids need to go 30 min from home to sit outside a closed McDonalds in December in order to do their online lessons with the free wifi in a pandemic because we can't have subsidized internet in rural areas. Gotcha.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...392_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/u...s-schools.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missi...b612083c4ae75b

[Deserterer]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

I'm sure none of the infrastructure that you rely on in your daily life: Electrical power, sewer, water, fire, police, highways, ports, bridges, airports, food safety, hospitals, schools, environmental protection, etc. etc. etc. was paid for or subsidized by tax dollars was it?

But yeah. Poor rural kids need to go 30 min from home to sit outside a closed McDonalds in December in order to do their online lessons with the free wifi in a pandemic because we can't have subsidized internet in rural areas. Gotcha.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...392_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/u...s-schools.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missi...b612083c4ae75b

See how the technophiles and their industry has sucked the rest us so deeply into their web, where there is now so little hope of escape? Now something that is absolutely not a requirement for a happy healthy life on this planet becomes a requirement for a happy healthy life on this planet, and oh guess what, you have to pay for it! Something that didn't exist 30 years ago, or during any of our hundred thousand year existence, now our children must have! Must! And we let it happen. What "necessity" that isn't a necessity will we let them sell us suckers and chumps tomorrow? I can hardly wait to find out.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

I'm sure none of the infrastructure that you rely on in your daily life: Electrical power, sewer, water, fire, police, highways, ports, bridges, airports, food safety, hospitals, schools, environmental protection, etc. etc. etc. was paid for or subsidized by tax dollars was it?

But yeah. Poor rural kids need to go 30 min from home to sit outside a closed McDonalds in December in order to do their online lessons with the free wifi in a pandemic because we can't have subsidized internet in rural areas. Gotcha.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...392_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/u...s-schools.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/missi...b612083c4ae75b

Classic ridiculous argument commonly put forth when facts do not support one's position.
NO! The taxpayer does not have to subsidize every little "unfairness". Internet can be easily obtained by ANY person who desires it.

Don't go creating fake "rights."

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

Then the folks living there can pay for it I guess should they desire this attribute - No problem with that.
I believe you are incorrect though in that the taxpayer does pay for rural internet through a myriad of phone taxes and other fees.

I guess we are dithering about definition of "taxpayer".

Those who still have land lines may be paying a 0.2% subsidy for those still on dial-up internet.

I'm sure the companies are filtering the 'credits / charges... deep within their accounting methods. (as allowed by IRS). But in general, the USA urban consumer (or tax payer) is not subsidizing non-existent rural USA internet. USA telecom is now largely 'commercial viability' based (revenue generating).

Which +/- significantly impedes the economic growth and stability of rural areas and citizens. But that is fine (Left wing conspiracy to force everyone to move to town (easier to milk their votes))