Bush appointed Powell, lets boot Bush, replace him with anyone who
will
work
for the people, not the rich corporations!
And replace him with who? John Kerry?
Why not?
Very simple reason why not. According to liberals, cheap internet
access
(remember it was Gore who "invented the internet" according to his own
statements) is a right so Kerry could be expected to push BPL even
harder
than Bush. After all the government should decide what is best for
everyone
and amateurs are too small a minority to watch out for. Economic
reality
be
damned as far as the liberals are concerned. At least the "rich
corporations" will, if BPL is not economical, kill it instead of sinking
money into it. After all they want to stay rich.
To really make any inroads in the market, BPL will need to be as cheap
as
dialup and as fast and reliable as cable modem. I find it hard to
believe
this combination will happen. The investment is too large. Those who
are
willing to pay the price for high speed access have already switched to
DSL
or cable, etc. Even they are fighting to get people to leave dialup but
it
is the price that people generally put ahead of speed.
Dee D. Flint, N8UZE
Dee,
My guess is that the investment costs will be reflected in power bills
that
we *have* to pay. Of course, large corporations will get breaks on these
rates. Many utilities now charge an "access" fee so they can charge
"lower"
rates. This means that while my bill states a bit over 8 cents per
kilowatt
hour, I actually pay close to 13 cents per kilowatt hour. Meanwhile,
folks
in Fairport and Spencerport pay something like 3.5 or 4 cents per kilowatt
hour.
Well keep in mind that the utility companies will have to go before the
state's public utilities commision and get their approval to raise electric
rates to pay for internet. This could be a hard sell.
All of this welfare to the wealthy (make 50 grand a year and you may well
pay higher taxes than someone making a million a year - they aren't paying
Social Insecurity, plus you have "unearned" income, capital gains ...) is
slowly bringing this country down.
I am frankly tired of folks blaming "liberals", which, loosely defined is
not agreeing with everything the Repooblican party says is gospel. It
appears one cannot even be moderate without being called a card-carrying
liberal. The last time *everyone* followed a leader without question led
up
to WWII.
That's OK. I'm just as tired of folks blaming "conservatives" for the
world's ills. It cuts both ways. Both groups have had good ideas and bad
ideas.
Watch who pays for the infrastructure of BPL. Oh, the operating costs
will
be paid by the BPL users (assuming it succeeds), but stand by for who will
pay the initial costs.
Again they will have to have the approval of the state's public utility
commission and this could be difficult in some states. Just as people are
unwilling to step up to the cost of cable modems, etc for high speed access,
they will be just as irate or even more irate at proposals to increase
electric rates.
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