[LINK] Affordable Internet in Australia for low-income families ? Never happen...

David Boxall david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au
Wed Aug 10 20:36:50 AEST 2011


On 10/08/2011 12:28 PM, jim birch wrote:
> david.boxall wrote:
>
>
>> So what do we need?
>>
>> Water, food, shelter, clothing. There are probably thousands of basics
>> more important than Internet access. Hell, I know people who can't
>> afford transport or a 'phone and I'd put those ahead of the Internet.
>>
>
> Perhaps, but...  While you can survive with food, shelter and clothing, you
> can't really participate in the medium that for most young people dominates
> life.  The urge to communicate yourself is driven by extremely powerful
> biological forces; it is underlies sex/procreation and power for social
> animals like us.  Facebook was originally designed as a way of getting laid
> (and it continues so.)
> ...

So you reckon the children of families that can't afford a 'phone or 
transport would prefer Internet access before either? Or maybe they'd 
give up one of the others I mentioned? You might put sex before food, 
but you wouldn't last long.

Bear in mind that I live in a rural area. Distances are substantial and, 
where there's any public transport at all, it commonly runs four times 
per day. It's kind of hard to "participate in the medium" if you can't 
get to it. Anyway, I've always found face-to-face far more satisfying 
than the Internet. ;)

Given a lack of discretionary income, does the term "affordable" mean 
anything? What does the price matter to one who has no money to spare?

Does the fact that x% of people don't have y mean that y isn't 
affordable? Maybe a, b and c are just more important.

Do the assumptions behind the original statement:
On 9/08/2011 6:37 AM, Tom Koltai wrote:
 > 29% of  Australians are not connected to the Internet. ...
reveal more about the one making the statement, and the Link community 
in general, than any of us might like? Perhaps our perspective is 
distorted by comparative privilege. Maybe we all need to get out into 
the real world.

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Dogs look up to us
                                |  And cats look down on us
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  But pigs treat us as equals
                                                    --Winston Churchill



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