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Seems to be a weekly occurrence to have people go nuts over this non-issue. But just for fun:
11.5% of the USC is used to provide phone service (that's landlines and cellphones both) to those in economic need. 65% - that's almost six times as much - is used to subsidize phone service in rural areas.
Yet, for some reason, while people go ballistic over the idea of some part-time McD server getting a cheap phone so his boss can get in touch with him, nobody seems to care that we're paying considerably more to maintain the trunk line going to scenic North Buttock in Alabama, pop. 53.
(Incidentally, the cost involved in handing over a refurbished cellphone of last year's model is a fraction of that of setting up and maintaining a landline. If you want your USC dime to go further, wireless is absolutely the way to go.)
Seems to be a weekly occurrence to have people go nuts over this non-issue. But just for fun:
11.5% of the USC is used to provide phone service (that's landlines and cellphones both) to those in economic need. 65% - that's almost six times as much - is used to subsidize phone service in rural areas.
Yet, for some reason, while people go ballistic over the idea of some part-time McD server getting a cheap phone so his boss can get in touch with him, nobody seems to care that we're paying considerably more to maintain the trunk line going to scenic North Buttock in Alabama, pop. 53.
(Incidentally, the cost involved in handing over a refurbished cellphone of last year's model is a fraction of that of setting up and maintaining a landline. If you want your USC dime to go further, wireless is absolutely the way to go.)
BS want a phone buy one. a phone aint a stinking right. whats next SUV'S
a cell phone is not a necessity, nor is cable tv, or even tv for that matter. When entitlement programs figure cable service in expenses I think they need to exclude them. If people would not sit idle in front of a TV perhaps they can make some needed changes in their life with the time saved.
Seems to be a weekly occurrence to have people go nuts over this non-issue. But just for fun:
11.5% of the USC is used to provide phone service (that's landlines and cellphones both) to those in economic need. 65% - that's almost six times as much - is used to subsidize phone service in rural areas.
Yet, for some reason, while people go ballistic over the idea of some part-time McD server getting a cheap phone so his boss can get in touch with him, nobody seems to care that we're paying considerably more to maintain the trunk line going to scenic North Buttock in Alabama, pop. 53.
(Incidentally, the cost involved in handing over a refurbished cellphone of last year's model is a fraction of that of setting up and maintaining a landline. If you want your USC dime to go further, wireless is absolutely the way to go.)
Offering facts to people determined to rant on about this non-issue is like pouring gasoline on a fire. But thank you nevertheless for offering the facts.
While every "little" thing by itself may be a non-issue, add them all up and you have a $1 Trillion + "issue".
Well, let's run some numbers.
In 2010, the USF is expected to pay out a total of 8.7 billion. As explained, by far the biggest drain on those funds are the rural communities, but 1.2 billion is expected to go to the low income programs (Lifeline and Link-Up). Not all of the 1.2 billion go to cellphones, of course, but I can't find the breakdown, so let's say 75%, which is almost certainly too high.
So, $900 million per year. That's, what - 3 days of Iraq war? Pardon me if I can't get my unmentionables in a knot over that figure.
Telephony service is hardly luxury - the basic technology is over 100 years old, but these days it's way cheaper to add a cellphone than a landline.
Quote:
We are quickly approaching a tipping point, if we haven't already where government funded "rights" will implode us.
The poor will always be with you, as the saying goes. You can either provide them with a reasonable standard of living or you can hire armed guards and put concertina wire on top of the walls around your gated community. It boils down to what sort of society you favor.
Care to address the point? Are you against subsidized phone service in rural areas?
Not for rural areas but I am against subsidized phone service for inner city poor. That's not what USC started out as.
And I am against using USC to subsidize broadband for the inner city poor.
These are NOT rights. Emergency 911 service and that's it.
If they can buy $100 dollar sneakers for their kids, they can certainly afford a landline local service bill of $15/month.
You'll never hear that logic debated in public.
The poor have a right to have their lives paid for by someone else.
They have a right to all the luxuries you and I have, regardless of their income level.
These so called poor people never had it so good here in the US of A.
They cannot be compared to poor in Haiti or Cuba or Zimbabwae or Somalia.
Thank God for that! What's your point? That we'll know we have a good government when our country looks like Haiti or Somalia?
And, as has been pointed out many times, in today's world, a phone is more like a utility than a luxury.
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