Hollywood Agents Show The Money To Online Stars

Broadband Is Important, But It's Not Everything

from the string-up-the-fiber-and-wait-for-the-money dept

Wed, Oct 25th 2006 1:44pm — Mike Masnick

While we have no doubt that better broadband access can clearly help improve the economic prospects of any area by opening up a ton of business opportunities or simply making existing businesses more efficient, it is important to remember that it's not everything. Broadband Reports points us to an article highlighting that broadband by itself, is no guarantee of economic growth. This sounds obvious, but too many places around the world simply assume that if you just add broadband, economic benefits automatically follow. It's similar to the days back during the bubble when various cities and towns around the world would declare themselves "silicon something" and pretend that they were the next Silicon Valley after copying one small aspect of Silicon Valley -- while failing to recognize that it's a combination of many factors (most of which are not easy to copy) that made Silicon Valley what it is. So, while broadband is important, it's not the only thing. Any area that assumes that if they just drop in broadband, economic bounties will follow is bound to be disappointed.

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17 Comments

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Critic, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:08pm

And any "reporter" that writes an article should have something more to say if they really beleive their reference is at all interesting.

In this case, not really.
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Another critic evidently, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:22pm

Seriously?
this is news? who is hack who wrote an article of such little importance and relevance.

broadband doesn't = economic growth? DUH!
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critic of a different color, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:28pm

Yep...
Whiney comment = better reporting?
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R Paul, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:32pm

Don't overestimate
the economic savvy of consumers. There are still people out there so uneducated as to think that:

Free trade damages the participants on the whole.
Minimum wages don't cause unemployment.
Government spending causes growth.
Offering people low-wage jobs is exploitation, so one should leave them with their no-wage unemployment.
Socialism is viable.

Such bits of magical thinking are no more (and no less) absurd than the theory that providing broadband where there is insufficient market to justify the investment will somehow cause economic growth.
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Rue Paul's Critic, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:41pm

Re: Don't overestimate
Yes Paul, and some guy sitting in front of his computer posting responces to blogs is much more educated, savvy, and inteligent than some of the worlds greatest thinkers like Marx, Fourier, Blanc, and MacDonald.

Boy are you smart.
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The Man, 25 Oct 2006 @ 2:56pm

Re: Re: Don't overestimate
In this case, I think the guy sitting in front of his computer is more inteligent. Just because someone writes a book about what they think, does not make those thoughts inteligent or true. History is the best test of the truth of Marx Theory. Total crap is what history has told me about it.

So to the guy sitting in front of his computer, keep posting because you are at least smarter than Marx.
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The Man's Critic, 25 Oct 2006 @ 3:08pm

Re: Re: Re: Don't overestimate
Sorry, but I do beleive if you look a bit further into the people I mentioned, you'll find they did a little more than "write a book".

And they sure as heck did a lot more than just post on a blog.
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Karl Marx, 25 Oct 2006 @ 3:43pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't overestimate
Don't stand up for me, I was an idiot. Socialism ended up being a crappy idea. I thought unions were great, turns out they sucked to. Turns out I was just smart enough to admit I was wrong. I have never posted to a blog before, but sure as heck I have now...........

Guess what, it still does not make me right.
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Karl Marx's Brain, 25 Oct 2006 @ 3:49pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't overestimate
Socialism isnt a bad idea... it was just poorly executed. Damn greed getting in the way of everything.
P.S> I want fries
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2006 @ 4:00pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't overestimate
Precisely.

Both on the greed and the fries.
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R. Paul, 25 Oct 2006 @ 4:40pm

Re: Re: Don't overestimate
Hmmm ... interesting. If you rule out the possibility that some guy sitting in front of his computer is educated or savvy, you imply that nobody who was educated and savy would sit in front of a computer. Are we both wasting our time?

As for Marx as one of the world's great thinkers, well, if you can measure the power of a thought in gallons of blood, I suppose his thought is more powerful than any since the Inquisition. How many starved in Russia, in China, in Cambodia, in North Korea, in Vietnam, in Cuba and everywhere else Marx's ideas were put to the test? Then consider those murdered for choosing rationalism and refusing to participate in the insanity!

To say that human nature is not good enough for Marxism is to confess that Marxism is a piss poor prescription for how actual humans should live.
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Sam, 25 Oct 2006 @ 5:08pm

It is everything....
...When you're an ISP...
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2006 @ 6:20pm

One can be a grat thinker, but no man can see (very clear) past its time. The problems and potential solutions of today are not necessarily the ones dead philosophers had to deal with. And while part of what they said could be valid, not everythink is. Sometimes we should also look at history which, although a bitch, has a lot to teach us...
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cjmemay, 25 Oct 2006 @ 6:34pm

So tangental
Wow, what a bunch of bullshit unrelated comments.

And some more bullshit about how more people have died in the name of communism... blah blah blah. Christ, someone should blow up the internet.

73% of all statistics come directly from an asshole, and you know the bit about them being made up.

Marx's ideas have NEVER been put to the test, so don't criticize him for OUR shortcomings. Most of the developed world is an unregulated fuckfest, and few people have done anything to stop it. Screwing each other, screwing the poor, screwing the planet. Etc, etc...

So before you go on saying "Look at those pathetic societies, where communism thrives, and violence is practically nonexistant. Look how pathetic they are." Think about the fact that they are not the ones who raped the planet until it was bone dry. Or overpopulated their society until it was basically unsustainable without a stratified, hegemonic oligarchy.

Seriously, sit down one evening and think about that.

BTW, Mike, it was an interesting read, sorry this bullshit got in the way of a meaningful discussion.
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pfffft, 25 Oct 2006 @ 11:08pm

Re: So tangental
cjmemay,

thanks, I agree with you 100%
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Oct 2006 @ 7:45am

Re: So tangental
Look at those pathetic societies, where communism thrives, and violence is practically nonexistant. Look how pathetic they are.

Name ONE
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huh?, 26 Oct 2006 @ 7:46am

Re: So tangental
Look at those pathetic societies, where communism thrives, and violence is practically nonexistant. Look how pathetic they are.

Uh huh. Can you name at least ONE such society where communism thrives and violence is practically nonexistant?
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