The internet, a subject near and dear to my heart. A recent report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), i.e. the Bush Administration, that our ‘National Broadband Strategy‘ is working out just fine. Really? The idea that we, as a nation, even have a strategy is a surprise to just about everyone, including the FCC and except the Bushies, of course. Who knew? Read on for a summary from Arstechnica.

• No Broadband Strategy

One thing I’ve always wondered about was how the telecommunications companies, like AT&T, could promise fiber-optic layout for great swaths of the US in the 1990s, in exchange for tax breaks and surcharges added to our phone bills, and then never make good on those promises. I mean, they signed contracts and got money to do this, but never did. Read more about this on Nieman Watchdog, and mind that he gets his bits and bytes a little confused:

• Internet Scam

Most of the time, when I hear people talking about whether or not the government should be involved in a business, there are two points of view, no government regulation at all, or yes, full government regulation. Well, the way things seem to me, since the very beginning of the USA, the government has been involved in most big businesses, like the building of the railroads, for instance. It’s usually profitable for those few that get their foot in the door with some Federal branch, and often, that business has a relationship with the government thereafter. So, you could argue for no government intervention, a clean slate you might say, but, since when has that ever been the case? So, businesses use the government and the government often helps businesses, and those who are employed in the one often take shifts in the other. A feedback process.

Is it always bad? I don’t think so, but it isn’t always good either. True open-market principles can never apply here, as it is never without government involvement, and that is seen to by those in the private sector that want to leverage the government to give them an edge. So, the original topic of this blog was the internet, and so we will go back to that. I very strongly believe that the internet is one of the most important investments we can make for our future, period. We are no longer a manufacturing country, and it doesn’t look like we will ever have much of a future exporting manufactured goods again, as the word economy can easily do that much less expensively in developing countries. What are we to do? We must educate our population, and capitalize on our technological talents. This means, build a very fast, very robust internet structure across the country. Treat it like the national priority that is. Our lifeline to future economic success and stability. It’s absolutely vital. Also, the US needs to greatly increase the funding for science and technology, that is also the future (full disclosure, the author is a government funded scientist). Europe and Asia are wasting no time on these subjects and are quickly leaving the US behind. There is no reason for this, except that we are currently stuck in a country run by companies who are very concerned about stock prices in the near-term of today next month and in the fourth quarter. If we don’t plan for the longer-term future, we will doom ourselves.