Solving problems that don’t exist

Published 8:55 pm Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Want to disturb, distress and confuse your federal government today? Read something that involves actual ink and paper today. Federal officials are seriously worried about the number of Americans who remain “offline” these days, even the millions of adults who simply don’t want to be on the internet.

The Federal Communications Commission regularly studies and reports on the “digital divide.”

“The nation has made significant progress expanding high-speed internet access in recent years, but further implementation of major reforms newly adopted by the Federal Communications Commission is required before broadband will be available to the approximately 19 million Americans who still lack access, according to the FCC’s Eighth Broadband Progress Report,” that agency announced recently. “In an era when broadband is essential to innovation, jobs, and global competitiveness, the Report concludes that the FCC — and the nation — must continue to address obstacles impeding universal broadband deployment and availability.”

Though lots of rules and regulations — but mostly the lure of cute cat pictures — have resulted in most Americans being online, some still aren’t.

“The Report finds that approximately 19 million Americans — 6 percent of the population — still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds,” the FCC notes. “In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population — 14.5 million people — lack access to this service. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe. The report concludes that until the Commission’s Connect America reforms are fully implemented, these gaps are unlikely to close.”

It’s hard to see why this should be such a big concern of the government’s. Please note that it’s not internet access that’s limited. It’s internet usage (those 100 million who choose not to subscribe) and broadband connections.

The FCC won’t stand for that. It’s now preparing to spend the billions of dollars it receives from an outdated zombie tax, the Universal Service Fund, to provide high-speed internet access to millions of those rural Americans.

By its own figures, the Federal Communications Commission will spend $3,857 per rural household to ensure the kids can watch Youtube without a traumatic wait caused by dial-up connections.

But no conceivable federal spending will fix the other problem: Americans who simply feel no need to be online — or are content to be online only through their dial-up connections or their smartphones (the FCC doesn’t count smartphones when it assesses internet access).

Many of them simply don’t want to be so connected.

“Forty-four percent of people 65 and older are non-Internet users; and 62 percent of the so-called G.I. generation, or the ‘greatest generation,’ age 77 and older, don’t use the Web,” reports the C-Net news agency. “While some non-Internet users say they would like to go online, many say they don’t want access to the Web. Thirty-four percent of non-Internet users think the Web isn’t relevant to them…”

Once again, we have a situation in which the government is spending millions of dollars to solve problems that simply don’t exist.