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Comment by nickysielicki | Hacker News Reader

> Even if they offer it for "free", everyone in the area gets the benefit of it.

To play devils advocate, not everyone wants or needs internet. My grandmother has buried fiber available straight to her rural home. I'm sure it cost tens of thousands of dollars to get that buried fiber run a mile down her dead-end road. She's never owned a computer and never will. Neither do any of the Amish families in the area.

http://www.marquetteadams.com/about-us/

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The Amish don't get the benefit of all the highways in their area, generally don't need paved roads, and don't send their children to public school. Additionally they are pacifists who don't believe in war.

They still pay taxes that fund all of that.

My grandmother became interested in computing and learned how to use the internet in her 80's before she passed away a decade later. The number of people who don't require or want internet access going into the future is going to be very few.

And the Amish do opt out of some taxes and benefits that almost no other group does.

So, there is clear precedent for not paying some common taxes and not using the benefits.

I generally don't need a fire department every day either. That doesn't make it a good idea to sever the connection to that utility.

Other replies to you post make some good points, but there is also the fact that having a fiber line running to her property significantly increases the value of the property and attractiveness to future purchasers.

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