Nobody knows how many households in Daviess County are wired to the Internet, probably less than 500. So, Internet issues may not interest many of us now. Yet the decisions many of us shrug off today have consequences for our tomorrow.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
The gulf between the “haves” and “have nots” widens when you consider the emergence of the Internet. Those who have access are helping to usher in a new era. Those who do not shrug and care less. And so, we are fragmented when it comes to affecting the future of this new medium. Most of rural America still views the Internet as a luxury while business plunges headlong into its unknown future. What’s most disturbing are the decisions now being made for us – while so many of us have yet to open our first email.
Here’s but one example. The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to control a chunk of the Internet to bring its monopoly on-line. Competition from alternatives like email has Postal Service officials scrambling for ways to stay relevant in a digital world, and with good reason. Consider that the real price of a first-class stamp has quadrupled in the last 30 years while long-distance telephone rates have fallen 88 percent!
There is some appeal to the Internet going postal. In its unbridled development, people (being people) have abused the new medium and corrupted some of its applications with misinformation, outright fraud and pornography. Truly, the Internet brings all aspects of the world, good and bad, to your keyboard. Regulation in some appropriate manner would be welcome, and laws already in place involving the U.S. Postal Service could easily apply. But at what price?
Citizens have been poorly served by the Postal Service monopoly on snail-mail. It wasn’t until the emergence of United Parcel Service and FedEx that the postal service took any notice of the real marketplace, and even now Consumer Reports lists the Postal Service significantly behind both these competitors in on-time deliveries. If the Postal Service were truly serious about improving service for citizens, it would relinquish its monopoly on first-class mail. Instead, the Postal Service reportedly has outlined ways to duplicate services currently provided by the private sector. Worse, it suggests that the government should subsidize email accounts in the cause to get more Americans on-line.
Here is a study in contrasts. The Postal Service with all its labor rules and bureaucracy against the Internet’s exploding growth in the hands of entrepreneurs. While many of us shrug with indifference, more decisions will be made for us. Are we better served with the Internet in the private sector or should government get involved?
The strongest position to argue for government intervention goes back to the gulf between the “haves” and “have nots.” Vice President Al Gore champions government involvement, pushing through the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which directs the FCC to tax the telecom industry (that’s us as in rate payers) some $10 billion to connect schools, libraries and rural health care facilities to the Internet. Gore became so intoxicated with the idea that he even took credit for inventing the Internet during an interview on CNN recently. For the record, the Internet originated as the ARPANET in 1969 when Gore was 21 and eight years away from his first term in Congress. Gore also overlooks reports that say 80 percent of U.S. schools are already wired to the web. Already the number of households with a personal computer passed the halfway mark at the end of last year. The costs of personal computers continues to drop. Marketing research shows ownership of PCs rose across all income levels last year.
The truth is that access to the Internet is growing so quickly that government regulation and taxes are counterproductive. We don’t need government or monopoly-protected agencies to reinvent the Internet. What is needed is appropriate control involving such issues as privacy (should serial numbers in software monitor on-line activity?), fraud and pornography. Once again, we are reminded that our progress in the sciences has exceeded our progress in morality.
Nobody knows how many households in Daviess County are wired to the Internet, probably less than 500. So, Internet issues may not interest many of us now. Yet the decisions many of us shrug off today have consequences for our tomorrow. Such weighty issues seem more than a little overwhelming, especially while you’re buried under the learning curve while opening up your first email. But decisions are being made. Generally, Internet development is best left to the private sector. – by Darryl Wilkinson