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Comment by bottom999mottob | Hacker News Reader

You're being a bit reductive lol. Also the parent comment doesn't seem to realize that a subsea cable would enable better connectivity for millions of people.

1. Herd immunity and clean air from that Wikipedia link fall under public goods. Both of those are a subset of healthcare.

2. Basic human needs: many people would argue healthcare, housing, and connectivity should be universally accessible as a moral imperative

3. Broader social benefits. If people have these 3 things, they can be more productive.

4. "bread and circuses" is drawing a false equivalence between basic needs and entertainment/luxury goods. That's just bad argumentation.

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> 1. Herd immunity and clean air from that Wikipedia link fall under public goods. Both of those are a subset of healthcare.

Maybe, but that doesn't mean that the superset is automatically a good expense.

> 2. Basic human needs: many people would argue healthcare, housing, and connectivity should be universally accessible as a moral imperative

You can give poor people money, so they can spend that on their basic human needs as they see fit.

> 3. Broader social benefits. If people have these 3 things, they can be more productive.

The benefits of extra productivity mostly accrues to the individual. And again, they can use money to buy these three things.

> Also the parent comment doesn't seem to realize that a subsea cable would enable better connectivity for millions of people.

That comment specifically listed "connectivity" as something he thought governments should fund, and only complained about governments funding weapons.

I'm all in for connectivity, which is very needed all around the world. It's my 3rd spending only behind really pressing social issues, even before education because I think it boosts it so much that we might not need to spend so many resources on it (right now we devote people's lives to teach and pay them miserably), and communication also helps culture and reaching out to more niche interests groups that if you were to simply hang out in your local town.

> 2. Basic human needs: many people would argue healthcare, housing, and connectivity should be universally accessible as a moral imperative

Governments can give money to poor people. Poor people can use money to buy goods and services.

(We don't need the government to provide housing etc to rich people. Rich people can help themselves, if we let them.)

Would these poor people buy these goods and services via some sort of network of interconnected computers that talk to each other? Or the stores they buy them from also use this network of connected computers to buy goods and services to stock the store with and run credit card (read EDT) machines? It would have to be some sort of crazy network of interconnected computers.

What should we call such a thing though? This interconnected network of computers. How about the Inter-Conn-Net-of-Computers. Maybe someone could help me shorten that name.

Have you heard of a 'store'?

(You can also buy stuff over the Internet these days, sure. And you can buy internet access with money, too. Isn't money wonderful?)

How do poor people on food stamps (EBT) in this crazy made up "store" place pay for (approved) food goods? The card terminal that reads their card connects to their balance via the Internet. without that, they're not able to buy food.

How do goods get to the store for purchase? Does any of that need the Internet? Like when the merchant pays for goods using a credit card?

For better or worse the Internet is critical infrastructure for modern society these days, it's not just scrolling on TikTok.

> How do poor people on food stamps (EBT) in this crazy made up "store" place pay for (approved) food goods?

I suggested to give money to poor people. Not weird stamps and a list of approved goods in some approved store.

But yes, just like you can use money to buy food (a critical component of staying alive), rich or poor alike can also use money to buy internet access.

I'm not sure what your point is?

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