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Comments on: Interesting https://whynow.dumka.us/2009/08/30/interesting-4/ On-line Opinion Magazine...OK, it's a blog Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:18:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Steve Bates https://whynow.dumka.us/2009/08/30/interesting-4/comment-page-1/#comment-48723 Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:34:40 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=11010#comment-48723 Rural Electrification Act… that was a SOCIALIST bit of legislation, right, David? You probably think those [expletive deleted] country folk should have simply done without electricity, rather than accepting (gasp) federal funding.

Seriously: my grandparents lived in a community so small that the telephone “system” had one operator and the phones themselves had cranks (no offense intended, David). Thanks to the REA, they had electric power, and in turn, a radio capable of receiving several stations. They were farmers… and also educated people to whom it mattered a great deal to be connected to the world. In today’s world, having a satisfactory ‘net connection is similar to having a telephone in the 1930s, 40s and 50s… no one really wants to be without one. “Netification” is, for our day, a good example of an important social function unlikely ever to be fulfilled by the profit motive without government help. Only a fool… oh, wait; never mind…

]]> By: Bryan https://whynow.dumka.us/2009/08/30/interesting-4/comment-page-1/#comment-48722 Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:37:57 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=11010#comment-48722 There no way for you to know, but back from the strip along the coast the bulk of the area was electrified under the Depression Era Rural Electrification Act, and power is still supplied by cooperatives, because it isn’t commercially viable for the local power company to service the area. Where landline telephone service exists, the switching is still analog, so that none of the telephone features that most people take for granted exist. There are few cellular telephone towers, so coverage is spotty at best. Television service requires a satellite dish, as there is no cable in the area, and no broadcast television coverage.

There is no DSL, or other wired broadband available, so like television viewing, you would need a satellite dish to connect to the Internet. The cost of a leased line to provide a connection for an Internet Service Provider is prohibitive, and anyone with the money and knowledge to be interested in the Internet, would get a satellite system. There is a lack of radio service in the area.

Newspapers really are the news in this area, for people who don’t live along the coast.

Just as everyone in Britain doesn’t live in London, everyone in Florida doesn’t live in Miami. We have a lot of very poor rural areas in Florida who do not have the infrastructure that a lot of people take for granted.

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