[RTC List] Jobs & broadband

[Josh Koenig]

Excellent points, Bob.

I think it's vital to keep in mind that the current push is about
*infrastructure*. It's only an immediate economic stimulus for the
people who get paid to lay the fiber or target the microwave relays,
etc. There will surely be at least some follow-on benefits in the
short term, but the real value in this kind of initiative is delivered
over the scope of decades. It not only ties in to education, but also
long-term population migration and associated urban/town development.

To put it another way: back in the 1950's we built a bunch of roads
between not especially populated places that were way way bigger than
current traffic demanded. When they first opened, most interstate
highways were empty, and drove through empty places. Today, for all
its downsides, this network enables virtually every aspect of our
modern economy.

Now, I tend to think the types of development we'll get out of
Universal Broadband (e.g. decentralized environmentalism, knowledge
work, greater labor mobility, etc) are arguably better than what we
got from Eisenhower (exurban sprawl, freeway interchange development,
trucking as primary freight system, etc), but the real benefits,
whatever they are, will be five to twenty years down the road.

The actual dollar amounts we're talking about here (your and my taxes)
are not insignificant, but also not egregious, especially considering
the immediate upsides to Public spending in the current economic
climate.  As the saying goes, you have to spend money to make money,
and Public spending is uniquely positioned to target long-term growth
goals over yearly/quarterly returns. If we want to do well on the
decade/century scale, the kinds of infrastructure investments
currently being begun (and only just begun) in energy, communication,
education and health care are quite timely indeed.

-j

On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Bob Morse <bob at morsemedia.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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-- 
--------------------
Josh Koenig, Partner & CTO
http://www.chapterthree.com