[LINK] The internet should be for everyone

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

On 7/07/2016 10:47 AM, David Boxall wrote:

> I get the feeling that past generations recognised value beyond
> short-term return on investment. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, for
> example, eventually paid off the debt incurred in its construction,
> but its value to the city and the nation remains far greater than its
> price.
>
> Overall, the road network doesn't pay the costs of building and
> maintenance, but its value is far more than its price. The same can
> probably be said of most, if not all, infrastructure. That's probably
> why involving the private sector is generally disastrous. That sector
> needs short-term return on its investment, which natural-monopoly
> infrastructure will not deliver. 

Value and cost often bear little relationship to each other.

The My Health Record has cost over $2billion so far. If its value is in
how much money it has saved in the delivery of health care (which is a
much more meaningful measure than the number of registrations or
uploads) then the value is approaching zero.

According to data from www.myhealthrecord.gov.au

The proportion of the population with a clinical health summary is 0.006%
The proportion of the population with a consumer entered health summary
is  0.0025%

If they have 50% compound growth over the next 15 odd years, they'll get
to 1% of the population having a clinical health summary. And the costs
will have got up by about another $200million (based upon the current
contract to support the system) and this doesn't take into account the
costs to the medical profession/industry of entering and curating the data.

At least some people are getting some value out of the NBN. So far,
AFAIK, nobody has ever downloaded a myhealthrecord and used it to
improve health care.

And they have the gall to claim the MyHR is "infrastructure".

>
> Conservatives, in particular, have great difficulty perceiving value.
> Cost therefore looms disproportionately large. Conservatives of the
> past had more courage. They conquered their fears and got things done.
> Sadly, today's Conservatives have degenerated to timid ineffectuality.

And hubris.

-- 

Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Sydney Australia
email: brd at iimetro.com.au
web:   www.drbrd.com
web:   www.problemsfirst.com
Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog