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Comment by basilgohar | Hacker News Reader

A lot...and I mean a LOT of money...is wasted on things that benefit only a very, very small percentage of elite people in ways that don't translate to benefits to the larger society or regular people.

What's so wrong if something is done to benefit the regular people once in a while?

One may argue that this also isn't helping "regular people" but I mean the subsidy aspect in particular. I mean, oil companies in the US are subsidized, for God's sake. Most of the most profitable businesses in the US are subsized heavily and that's part of how they became so profitable. Corporate welfare is not shunned but spend money on the common man and you have protests and politicians up in arms for wastage...

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> very small percentage of elite people

Except when these "elite" people are inhabitants of a lost hole in the middle of the Creuse and suddenly all children can access Internet in a civilized way. The same way the true elites in Paris have done for some time already.

I think you misunderstood the comment you are replying to - they are arguing that running fibre to rural communities is a good use of subsidies, and contrasts pleasantly with the usual sort of subsidy that only a few large corporation owners really benefit from.

I suspect the parent commenter agree with you : broadband access DID cost a lot of money - and in a sense, the project was rushed, and an unexpected demonstration that public / private partnerships with the wrong incentive structure can lead to as bad (if not worse) result than what a public monopoly would have done.

But yeah, my mum at the border of la Creuse had a better internet access than me for a few months :D

> What's so wrong if something is done to benefit the regular people once in a while?

Usually, this is money taken from people that aren't well off either... So it's not a clear cut positive.

Wherever your society decides to do such is obviously not for me to judge.

As a single almost 40yo person myself I'm significantly annoyed by all the money the state takes from my paycheck to sponsor people who quiet literally would spit on me and hold me in contempt. And while i ain't poor, my netto wage is lower then some of those people get From the state. But I'm not French, so no opinion on this particularly case.

> Usually, this is money taken from people that aren't well off either... So it's not a clear cut positive.

Well in France I tend to think the taxes are pretty progressive, so the money isn't taken from poor people. But yes, somehow the ultra-wealthy people always manage to escape what they owe.

Less progressive than in the USA, believe it or not…

Indeed this is hard to believe : a common theme here on HN is how EU and particularly France taxes too much people earning money.

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