Working at Home on the Internet Webpage Archive

(from the Working at Home on the Internet Web Page) 

This is what Robert Litan from the Brookings Institute wrote for the Washington Post and my rebuttal to his perception of what Net Neutrality means to us all.
By Robert E. Litan
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; 12:00 AM

Imagine a world in which millions of senior citizens and disabled Americans, among others, can have, if they want, their medical conditions monitored continuously by devices that communicate over high speed, broadband networks that can automatically alert them if they require immediate medical attention.
 
Such “remote disease management” systems not only would be highly convenient for patients, but based on evidence from the Veterans Administration’s use of systems that do not yet make extensive use of broadband, could lead to huge savings in health care costs.
 
I have calculated in a recent report that the health care cost savings and the reduced need for institutionalizing seniors and the disabled could top $1 trillion over the next 25 years.

My Rebuttal:

Imagine that, you are going to kill your Grandmom, and get rid of all those Pesky Veterans, and the Disabled AND Save the Government $1 Trillion.

How dare you want to keep the internet neutral. Just to save yourself a couple of bucks.

If you take that seriously, you must be part of the Brookings Institute, or AT&T, or Verizon, or Adelphia Cable or Comcast Cable… or any of the other myriad of service providers that ALREADY CHARGE for high speed service but want to make premium service a surcharge.

Even if the premium service were available for an additional price, would your grandparents be able to afford it? That assumes that they can afford and use DSL or Cable in the first place.

I think that this is probably one of the worst arguments for premium service I have ever heard. The Government doesn’t take care of the Vets Now, so who will pay for their new and improved internet access?

The Government made a law to give access to the disabled, and they got ramps at the end of the block to cross the street.

Gramps can’t afford his medicine Now, how is he supposed to pay extra for his medical monitor over the internet once the broadband providers start charging more for the service?

We can’t let this happen, if the Cable and Telephone companies charge premium prices for internet access, the only ones who will benefit is them.

Source:
The Washington Post