United States | News & Politics

1906 readers

964 users here now

Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

simsymbiote@midwest.social

Type1@midwest.social

Biden to detail plans for $42 billion investment in US internet access (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by nulluser@lemmy.world to c/usa@midwest.social

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

June 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday plans to lay out how a $42 billion investment in expanding internet access will be divvied up among the nation's 50 states, in an effort to give all Americans access to high-speed broadband by 2030.

The move will kick off the second leg of Biden's tour highlighting how legislation passed by Congress during the first half of his term will affect average Americans, as his reelection bid gears up.

"We have an historic opportunity here to make a real difference in people's lives and making sure that we deliver on that potential is what we're about every day and to make sure that people feel that at their kitchen table, in their communities, in their backyards,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients said.

Zients compared the broadband effort to President Franklin Roosevelt's efforts in 1936 to bring electricity to rural America. The administration estimates there are some 8.5 million locations in the U.S. that lack access to broadband connections.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you mean nationalize internet or nationalize the construction? For construction, I think it'd be fine if the states ran their own projects.

I agree it should not be given to the ISPs after last time.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, I mean nationalize the ISPs themselves. It should be treated like a utility (which means municipalities would manage their own improvement projects)

[–] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree that it should be treated like a utility, but I don't think utilities themselves are are nationalized. Or am I misunderstanding something?

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No, that's mostly right (in the US). But I happen to also think we should nationalize telecommunication and energy (to name just a couple).

Treating ISPs as a utility and regulating them under Public Utility Commissions are a good first step, but In those cases you can still end up in situations like in Texas where the commission fails to adequately regulate the utility and there's a failure. Private utilities make so much money that they can be effectively unregulated.

Is also point out that nationalization doesn't always mean the government outright owns an industry or service. In some cases, the government may nationalize an industry by taking a controlling interest, setting prices, or otherwise exerting control without outright ownership.

[–] falk1856@midwest.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Moving ISPs into the same category as utilities and regulating them as such makes sense but I don't know if there's the political will right now to nationalize like that. An easier step would probably be an overhaul of the FCC and do something about the incestual relationship between regulators and corporate lobbies (on all fronts, really)

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 2 points 1 year ago

I don't think what we ought to do should be dictated by what there is political will for.