The deeper issues are more troubling. Cash for Clunkers only makes sense if we believe that our #1 problem is that we don’t drive sufficiently fancy cars.
Well said.
Rather than putting in the effort to innovate through technology, American car companies find it much more effective to make money through political means.
If we spent the Cash for Clunkers money on Let’s Try to Catch up with Korea…a lot of Americans might not have needed to make so many trips in their cars because (1) they could work from home, (2) they could shop from home, (3) they could get information from home, (4) they could find out, from home, that some place they were planning to go was in fact closed.
Well intentioned.
Unfortunately, AT&T is the new GM. Give them $N billion and the only thing they know how to do is what they’ve already done for the past 20 years. Apply 10% to technology. Apply 50% to other. Use the remaining 40% to fund the political efforts to receive their next fix.
We have solved the technology issue. It pains me to watch folks get excited about their new 10Mbps connection when 10Gbps is within their grasp.
The Good: You don’t have to go to Korea. It even exists in Wisconsin.
The Bad: We have 40% of $N billion working against us and only 10% of $N billion is going toward their version of innovation. It’s working out very well for them.
Quotes and Inspiration: Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Cash for Clunkers
Update: An example two stories later in my newsreader.
Context: The telecommunications industry says “Everything is fine with broadband.” The government, upon dedicating $7.2 billion in stimulus money to broadband, asks them to prove it. Show us who has access to what and for how much. The government antes up $.3 billion to make a map.
If this mapping exercise is going to be worth even 1/10 of the money Congress appropriated, it’s about time for the government to step away from the table with the industry, remind itself of its public interest obligations and quit giving away the store. It doesn’t matter if it was a “good deal” or a “bad deal” to make those changes. There was no reason for any deal. Either scrap the program, extend the deadlines and start over, or hold the industry to some meaningful commitments.
Source: NTIA Losing Game of Data Chicken | Public Knowledge
Imagine three companies are working together to lay the first highway system. Everything is a toll road. Those public entities that need 10 lane interstates have already built them in the normal course of business at 30% the cost of the tolls that others paying on county highways provided by companies.
The government dedicates $7.2 billion with the intention of putting in the 10 lane interstate they have heard about.
40% of $N billion first goes towards twisting the meaning of “10 lane interstate” into “county highway”. Fact: The broadband stimulus bill defines “broadband” as 768k down, 200k up. Seriously. Welcome to 1996.
Next, when $.3 billion is spent map what already exists, the companies convince the government to not disclose a) how big their roads are, b) where they go, and c) how much they are charging.
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