[RTC List] Jobs & broadband

[Bob Morse]

This is a good discussion. What are the economic benefits of broadband? 
Where are the metrics to support the idea that broadband (needs to be 
defined) leads to more jobs or economic growth? From what I have seen 
the two are not inherently linked. It's analagous to the fallacy that 
sticking a bunch of computers in the classroom would improve the 
learning environment. They can, if people (teachers and students) are 
trained on how to use them effectively.

Education and re-training should accompany any technological 
improvement. There will always be the few who will teach themselves to 
take advantage of these advances. But most of us need support. So, is 
that a reason to not invest in both? A good economic development plan 
would have them working together. Indeed, educational institutions will 
be the among the first to take advantage of improved broadband 
infrastructure. Every advance costs money. To say that it costs too much 
only  looks at half the equation. Is the cost worth the return?

When I started using a modem I used it to chat with people on bulletin 
boards. That's what everyone was doing. Now I have a web development and 
hosting company. Something I couldn't be doing with my 300 baud modem. 
So, to say that at the moment, most bandwidth is sucked up by gamers, 
downloading movies, and porn assumes that's all it will ever be used for.

For a different perspective on broadband and economic development you 
might see Andrew Cohill's blog at http://www.designnine.com/news/

William Van Hefner wrote:
> Larry,
>
> Thanks for posting that article. Unfortunately, it failed to go far enough
> with it's analysis, in that while it may indeed attract new jobs to an
> area when you spend a ton of money on training and educating its
> population (setting aside, for the moment, where the money comes from for
> all of that...), it is simply not a concept that can be made to scale
> across the entire country.
>
> In order for a well-educated, well-connected community to attract new
> jobs, the jobs must first be lured-away from someplace else. Companies can
> not simply create jobs out of thin air, just because qualified employees
> exist. When a company moves jobs, or is able to create new ones, one
> community's gain is always another's (potential) loss. In more practical
> terms, if I had 100x the bandwidth that I have now, how would it help my
> job opportunities or business? Would it somehow make my business more
> competitive with those in other countries? Honestly, even from the
> standpoint of being in an internet based-business, it wouldn't really help
> all that much. Certainly not at the expense of increased taxes.
>
> Let's face it, most of the increased bandwidth usage these days has
> nothing whatsoever to do with business need or job creation. It is going
> to bring home users faster streaming video and audio, P2P, music
> downloads, video games, movie downloads, pirated software and porn. That's
> a simple, statistical fact. Most businesses that I know use much less
> bandwidth than the average teenager does these days. Why should any of our
> tax money be spent, just so that some 16 year old in the boonies can
> download the latest video game at 100x the speed that he used to, or that
> some rich guy can download a PPV movie from his remote Winter cabin near
> Aspen? I spending all of this money really necessary?
>
>
>   


-- 
Bob Morse
Morse Media
Web Development * Web Hosting * Internet Marketing
http://morsemedia.net
707-444-9566
707-496-9191 (cell)
Blog: http://talkingtech.net