Well maybe it is not basic human right, just like having access to a road is not but maybe we should have more internet infra paid with taxes.
We already do, taxpayers are just not getting much value for their money.
>ISPs that take billions in government subsidies (from programs like the FCC’s Connect America fund) traditionally focus their efforts on more competitive, urban markets, leaving less-affluent cities and rural markets with sluggish DSL that fails to even meet the FCC’s base definition of broadband https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywkn4b/study-throwing-taxpay...
Exactly.
>Well maybe it is not basic human right
In Switzerland you have the basic right to gain information, the discussion ATM, is a TV/Radio/Newspaper enough or does it needs a Internet-Device (important for prisons, pledging, bankruptcy etc)
I'm not sure if they will consider "free internet" as another way to access TV and charge you.
So this is a universal tax anyway, whether or not you have a TV-enabled device.
Some years ago they would send people to sniff around your home to find a media device, like taking photos of your car radio in front of your home to prove you can access public media. But if you let them in your home, they'd write a report of you having a TV etc.
But as I said this isn't happening any more, they just assume every household has a device capable of accessing public media so everyone must pay.
There was a big movement against this but ultimately the Constitutional Court decided all this is A-OK.
These days you have to pay no matter what, even if you have no device that can receive broadcasts.
I lived in a flat that only had ADSL a few years ago and I never intend on going back to that.
Even FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) ends up at the bottom of the short list. FTTP is pretty vital now for me, and very much features as one of the deciding factors.
Also often the address isn't given until after you've arranged a viewing so it's a pain.
It should just be listed like other utilities like heating, air conditioning etc.
It also just enables people to communicate and access information. Kinda weird that we need to make a business pitch to show that something is essential. Then again, we're living under capitalism.
> > It also just enables people to communicate and access information. Kinda weird that we need to make a business pitch to show that something is essential.
> How is capitalism part of this conversation? Socialism also has to debate the merits of making something essential
Indeed, and the social and societal merits are that it enables equal access to education (per the letter in the article) for all, especially in times of a pandemic.
Meanwhile the capitalist merits are that it also enables greater amounts of commerce to occur.
The parent commenter is lamenting that the gains to society outside that exclude increase in capital flows aren’t sufficient to justify something, and that a capitalist gain needs to also be present to provide that justification. While also noting that we do live in a capitalist society.
> It’s not like the USSR had sparkling water running to every home. As much as some people would have liked it.
I’m not sure that the USSR is relevant here. I’m not sure sparkling water adds value to society in the same way as access to electricity, clean running potable water, or the Internet does. One is is a non-essential luxury item. It’s increasingly difficult to argue with a straight face that Internet access is a non-essential luxury.
EDIT: that’s not to say there isn’t an argument to be made that access to the Internet today is a non-essential luxury, and if someone actually has a good faith case to make, by all means please do!
The USSR was NOT Socialism nor was it Communism, that was just a motto to establish absolute power lead from a small elite circle (the withered core of the communist party). It's kind of the opposite of communism and especially socialism.
BTW it would have been extremely interesting if Israel went that route (maybe the first real, and humane communist state?)
BTW2 Sparkling water in russia? Maybe Woda but then without sparkles.
Russia always had just Kings/Emperors:
The Tsar
The Party
The Putin