Leadified said:
The problem with this is that rural areas are aging and shrinking and infrastructure is very expensive to expand. Given the high costs and decreasing demand for high speed internet services, since younger people usually move into cities looking for work, I don't see major ISPs putting much investment into these communities. You may see smaller ISPs open shop but it's a difficult market to enter and major ISPs also have stakes in various other services along with the federal government which will continue to stifle competition. Pai said "let the free market handle it" while there is no free market.
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What is happening behind the scenes is what people don't know and understand. The reason why people like me or my brother or our friends won't take over our farms is because it is literally not worth it. We all work "in the city" and make so much more money than our parents on the farm, it's not funny. We are not super smart or special either btw. The reason for this is that people have been brought up to think that not only is food a given right, but that top quality food is as well. They have also been taught to assume that this food should be dirt cheap. In the end, stores make decent money, processing plants make decent money, and farmers make very little. Now just imagine what the future will hold when there is nobody farming. Vertical city farming is in it's early stages, but being able to feed the world as it is now, let alone 25 years from now? People are going to end up really hungry, or will have to give up all the extra's they have now so they can afford food.
Truthfully, while farmers would prefer much more income, they are ok with having less, so that everyone can benefit, but they expect the same in return. When the internet, a product of the city, becomes not only available, but necessary to compete in today's world, and the city tells the farmers, 'we're not willing to give up some speed and reliability for you to be able to have what we have', it leads to people like me feeling even better about not becoming a farmer. This greed will end up making city people cough up that saved money in food prices eventually, as well as other things. That money will mostly go to the stores and processing btw. If farmers went back to the really old way of doing things, and selling their products from their farm, imagine the chaos that would lead to for city people. As long as everyone is willing to give a little, everyone can greatly benefit as a whole.
The reason we leave the country isn't because the country life sucks, it's because the city is in many ways holding the rural area's hostage. I would think that American's especially, would understand what eventually happens to the kind of people who take hostages. The Corporations themselves are also to blame, it's just not city people, but in a free market they do have to compete and cater to where the money is, and in terms of the internet, it's in the city. Rural people are also to blame as well. We should all get together and do something about it, but that's not normal in the country. When you tell your neighbor you need help, they try to help. When you tell the guy from down the road to beat it, they get lost. Protesting or dealing with the police is not normal in the country.
One way or another the problem will sort itself out over time. The question is, will it be done the easy way or the hard way. I suggest the easy way as the hard way pisses everybody off in the end.