AT&T Lowers Data Access To Just $500/GB 339
GMGruman writes "No doubt in a move to demonstrate how having fewer carriers (once it buys T-Mobile) will be good for US cellular customers, AT&T has announced lower data pricing for customers not on contract: On a per-gigabyte basis, GoPhone users will only pay $500 rather than the previous $5,000. Such a deal. The pricing is indeed lower, but even the best option for such users is five times more than regular customers pay. And given that pay-as-you-go pricing is what the poor and people living paycheck to paycheck use, the result is those who can afford the least still pay by far the most."
for pete's sake (Score:4, Insightful)
there isn't an industry in as sore need of regulation
most of all, i am quite tired of paying the same mandated data plan price for rural 2g
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Sure there is: cable (internet, TV, telephone). They've been pulling similar crap for ages.
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Sure there is: cable (internet, TV, telephone). They've been pulling similar crap for ages.
Has anyone else noticed that they are all actually the same industry. The cheap and easy transference of data...
Re:for pete's sake (Score:5, Informative)
Look at what's happened here in Australia with Telstra. Cities have great service (ADSL2+, Cable, FiOS), anything outside the major centres, well, good luck. You might be able to get dialup. I stress might, as the pair gains systems out there can play havoc with dialup, and Telstra (the guys who own the cables) refuse to upgrade anything outside a CBD of a capital city.
Having worked for Telstra in the plant assignment/activations area (cable records & line programming) I've seen 100 pair cables with maybe 10 pairs usable on it. Telstra refused to replace them as it's not economically viable for them.
This is why I'm all for the National Broadband Network that's being developed over here. Government monopoly on wholesale to ensure equal service delivery across all communities.
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Well he didn't mention the Illuminati or Reptilians...
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That'd never work... :) these government sanctioned and sponsored monopolies (cable/phone) can't be bothered with competition. They'd rather have their cake and eat it too.
But what you say is true. Power lines and phone lines (and cable lines) were all laid with huge subsidies and eminent domain actions by the government. In effect, WE own most of the infrastructure (as taxpayers), and as such, should not be allowing a corporation that got a handout to build the infrastructure in the first place free reign
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I'm also using a prepaid card, but on this side of the pond I'm paying 1â/GB. Minor difference.
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Seems like /. fucked up the formatting. It's 1EUR/GB and after 20 GB I don't pay any overage but the speed is reduced to GPRS until the end of the month.
Re:for pete's sake (Score:4, Informative)
The rates you're getting sound very good - much better than typical US prepaid rates. However, the pricing from the submission is a typical Slashdot sensationalist headline (and hackjob Infoworld article) and is not really comparable. The actual pricing from TFA is:
So it's only $500/GB if you buy it in 10 MB increments ... kind of like how you'll pay about $150 for a bottle of bourbon if you buy it as shots vs. $25 buying the whole bottle at the liquor store.* But pointing that out evidently doesn't generate outrage and pageviews. Again, not nearly as good as 1 Euro per GB, but also not "$500 per GB."
I know it's a lot to expect Slashdot to actually read things before posting, but I foolishly continue to hold out hope.
* Happy hour and dive bars excluded. Add 50% if you are in New York City and 100% if you are in a trendy bar in New York City. Just give up if you are in Tokyo.
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From TFA:
>>Of course, there are other plans: One costs $150 per gigabyte if you buy 100MB increments (15 times what regular customers pay), and the other costs "only" $50 per gigabyte if you buy 500MB increments (5 times over the regular customer cost). Such a deal!
So it's pretty much covered in it.
And of course, $50 per gigabyte is such an awesome deal, isn't it?? Just to put that in perspective, "pay-as-you-go iPad users pay $10 per gigabyte".
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I just don't understand why anyone would use ATT's shitty service when there is one that is so very much better that is readily available.
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I just don't understand why anyone would use ATT's shitty service when there is one that is so very much better that is readily available.
Because in many areas, there isn't.
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If you factor out the phone subsidy, that's more than AT&T charges. The problem is that with AT&T there's no option to factor out the subsidy.
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I just don't understand why anyone would use ATT's shitty service when there is one that is so very much better that is readily available.
There is. I use it and like it a lot. We call it T-Mobile. Other than that, no GSM around here. Oh wait....
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Re:for pete's sake (Score:4, Insightful)
Owning a smart phone with a data plan isn't a human right. Don't want to pay that much for the data plan? Don't. Live without it. Billions do it every day.
If, on the other hand, you choose, of your own volition, to pay the exorbitant fee for the data plan, you only serve to prove that the pricing was reasonable and correct.
Re:for pete's sake (Score:5, Interesting)
Owning a smart phone with a data plan isn't a human right. Don't want to pay that much for the data plan? Don't. Live without it. Billions do it every day.
Controlling a piece of a the public airways isn't a corporate right. Don't want to charge reasonable rates for data plans? Don't. Live without that government granted monopoly on public property. All the other corporations do it every day.
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What was the point of AT&T paying the US government licensing fees for those public airways again?
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One thing to remember is that the scarce bandwidth (aka - airwaves) we do have belongs to the public - its the FCC's mandate to regulate this.
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I would add that the wholesale providers must not be allowed to discriminate based on the type of device the end user is using. Only based on the total number of devices and total usage of each type of service (voice, data, sms etc). Ideally they should also provide a way for retail providers who use multiple wholesale providers to easilly change their "preffered" wholesale provider.
Ideally one would also get rid of the technical compatibility problems in the US phone market (though those may be going away
And downloading "data" to smartphone... (Score:3, Insightful)
...is, of course, a necessity of life (in addition to cable television).
Re:And downloading "data" to smartphone... (Score:5, Insightful)
With proper regulation it could be a more efficient use of money than having a landline and internet. The problem is that there's no competition at all in the American telecommunication industry, and I'm really curious as to what exactly they're referring to when they claim it's competitive.
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...is, of course, a necessity of life (in addition to cable television).
For some, who are required to have ready access to email 24/7 for their jobs, it does become a necessity of (employment) life.
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If people are poor, why in God's name to they need a bizarrely useless fashion accessory like a smartphone.
So we can only have a healthy marketplace if the products are mandatory and the people are poor?
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I don't know about you, but my smartphone has allowed me to earn more income than I was able to before I owned it. Poor people should not be excluded from being able to make money. In fact, they need it more than anyone else.
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Perhaps you can bookmark your post, then come back and answer that question yourself... after you've lost your job or got wiped out by a lengthy hospital stay or been bested in a lawsuit, and are thereafter unable to continue making your monthly payments on the long-term contracts that are often required if you'd like to pay for service after the fact?
"Bad credit" does not always mean "irresponsible".
(BTW, in case you've never noticed... Being poor makes it a just bit more challenging to establish credit th
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For my ex, that "reasonable" deposit was $2000. Yes, she had bad credit...
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God knows if the poor actually had access to such things they might not stay poor. (shudder)
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The ability to keep in contact with certain Mexican friends might however lead to some financial well being (temporarily).
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Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?
From what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course.
How silly (Score:5, Insightful)
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Most people with pre-paid phones need voice and text messaging...not data plans.
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Most people with pre-paid phones need voice and text messaging...not data plans.
Oh, so it's okay to rip off the ones who actually do need data, then? Or maybe poor peoples' bandwidth actually does cost orders of magnitude more than that of others?
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Most people with pre-paid phones need voice and text messaging...not data plans.
Oh, so it's okay to rip off the ones who actually do need data, then? Or maybe poor peoples' bandwidth actually does cost orders of magnitude more than that of others?
Or maybe it's ok to rip off people who make bad decisions....Freedom for the rich, but if you're poor, then it's "why do you need that?"
Re:How silly (Score:4, Insightful)
"And given that pay-as-you-go pricing is what the poor and people living paycheck to paycheck use...
And people with bad credit.
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It's pretty silly for most people, poor or not, to pay such ridiculous prices for what little value that cellular data services provide. I can easily pay what they ask but it galls me to just let someone fuck me like that. I'd rather donate to the red cross or something than some bastard in an ivory tower who manipulates my crooked ass congressman into voting to let him rape my wallet. I've got internet at home and a laptop with wifi for hotspots. Until they get reasonable about prices they can kiss my
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"And given that pay-as-you-go pricing is what the poor and people living paycheck to paycheck use, the result is those who can afford the least still pay by far the most." What a silly comment. First, I doubt that people who are poor and use pay as you go generally have smartphones, and if they do, they are far less likely to be data users. Second, we are not at the point where smartphones with data are a can't-exist-without-it commodity. If you are this poor, should you be wasting money on any data plan? Certainly data prices from mobile providers are shockingly high, but this is a silly "think of the children" style fallacious appeal to emotion.
Well..., that is one of the most unrealistic and out-of-touch utterances since Barbara Bush commented on how having to seek refuge in an old sports stadium in a distant city was a step up for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
You, sir, are insensitive and clueless idiot. Do youself a favor and educate yourself on the plight of the poor. You have a great deal to learn.
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People of limited means may indeed have a smart phone, but it is unlikely they have a smart phone from ATT. ATT, or Verizon for that matter, are simply not the value carriers. Wh
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"And given that pay-as-you-go pricing is what the poor and people living paycheck to paycheck use, the result is those who can afford the least still pay by far the most."
What a silly comment.
I agree, for different reasons. I'm not wealthy, but I'm doing ... pretty well. I didn't get to this level by signing high multi-year monthly payment contracts. Needless to say I have a pay as you go phone. I pay about $10 per month to virgin mobile on average. That's like 20 minutes of service, which is all I need, and its worth well over $10 to me so I'm very happy with it (shh, don't tell VM)
I have almost no use for mobile data, but I might sign up for one month during a vacation or something (googl
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Dropping your landline and use the smartphone for internet is typically the cheapest deal out there, rather than having a line+dialup or line+cable/dsl internet.
Some websites that cater to the poor have numbers of ~50% of the users accessing the data through a smartphone.
Oh no! (Score:2)
Gasp! The thought of all those poor people who can't afford to use their smart phones, tablets, and netbooks is almost too much to bear... Get a little perspective.
Re:Oh no! (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the point is that those people are getting soaked. If you want a smart phone you better not want to go prepaid. Of course there are other carriers that do not abuse their customers at that rate. The problem is that one of them is being bought by AT&T... Hey FCC and FTC did you see this?
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I use prepaid on a smartphone because it is the best deal. I don't download movies on my phone, and it connects to wifi in it's most common locations. Hence I only use 15MB or so of data a month. Buying a 100MB ($20) package every now and then and a monthly 1MB ($5) package every month so the 100MB keeps rolling over, means I can go for about 6 months, at $20+6*$5=$50, or just under $10 per month. If I had a contract, that would be $30+ per month on top of my contract. Don't be fooled by Costco pricing
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I don't download movies but I do download podcasts and stream radio and use RDIO a lot. If you can live with the limitations then great but the price per is till way too hight. Wouldn't you like to pay $20 for a 2 gig package every year os so instead of $10 per month? I mean if it was avail about to you.
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You can buy an Android phone for $99 that can go with a prepaid plan: http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/prepaid.aspx#T-Mobile-Comet-Black-Prepaid-Refurbished [t-mobile.com]
Home phone and internet service together usually run around $60 a month (or more), and you need a computer to use it. Looks pretty comparable to me, unless you think poor people shouldn't be able to get on the internet.
It's not 1998, cell phones are not a luxury item anymore. The internet is not a playground for the rich, it is how people find out abo
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I think this might explain his post. You see he isn't poor. http://www.theonion.com/articles/as-you-can-see-from-my-namebrand-clothing-i-am-not,10836/ [theonion.com]
T-mobile web day pass (Score:2, Informative)
T-mobile web day pass is $1.50/23hr, unlimited access.
canada overage costs (Score:5, Informative)
TELUS: $50/gb
Rogers: $30/gb
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Denmark: less than $10 for 1GB plan and no overcharge, but you will be shaped to something akin to 1990 internet when you hit the 1GB cap.
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Re:canada overage costs (Score:4)
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If it weren't for the Bikini Team, I'd have to hate you.
So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
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There's only 4 options at the moment, and if the AT&T acquisition of T-mobile goes through we'll only have 3 options. Sure there are others, but Boost is owned by Sprint, and any other parties wanting to be cell phone carriers would have to contract with one of those 4.
Same ultimately goes for people that are wanting internet service at home, there's an extremely limited number of options. The markets don't function well when there aren't any choices to make.
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Depends on where you live really, AT&T/T-Mobile and Sprint seem to collude to exclusively cover certain areas whereas Verizon simply doesn't want to cover it.
That's one way of putting it... (Score:5, Interesting)
"those who can afford the least still pay by far the most."
could perhaps more accurately be written:
"those who typically use the least get charged the most per unit."
or shortened to:
"you save money if you buy in bulk."
Of course, I'm not defending the outrageous rates—just the melodramatic language.
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Why did you conflate "afford the least" with "use the least"? I don't see the connection.
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Rent-A-Center caters to poor people, allowing them access to fancy furniture and TV's and such that they otherwise would not purchase because of cost... And yes you can rent to own, but if you do it that way you spend 2x or more than the retail price. A credit card would be cheaper...
When my wife was pregnant, she couldn't sleep comfortably in bed and wanted a recliner to rest in. Since we only wanted it for a couple of months, I called Rent-A-Center to see about renting one until she had the baby. It was going to cost something like $300 and we'd have to give it back afterwards. I checked the local classified ads and bought two recliners from a couple who were redecorating their house and wanted different colors, for a total of $50. Furniture rental is a sucker's game. I honestly can't
so what? (Score:2)
Virgin Mobile has two Android phones which get you unlimited data for $25/month. It's far and away the cheapest smart phone data plan in the US. Who cares what T does when we have VM?
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VM is wholly owned by Sprint.
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Who cares what T does when we have VM?
Virgin Mobile doesn't seem to exist within a 500 mile radius of where I live. Not much help.
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That's because you're actually buying the phone outright, rather than subsidizing the purchase cost with a more expensive long term contract. Virgin Mobile's LG Optimus V at $199 is the same as the starting point for the iPhone 4. VM's offerings are more mid-tier phones and not the high end models that get all the publicity, but they'd likely be good enough for most people.
Let's compare the cost over a two year period, since that's the typical contract, with the Sprint version of the phone, the Optimus S, o
AT&T Seeking to Destroy the Internet (Score:3)
The Internet is supposed to be only for looking at web pages, no access to actual video or audio content. Want to play a multi-user game? Ha! Not if significant network traffic is required!
250 GB limits on their AT&T U-verse connection (does not apply to your cable subscription). Some have reported upwards of 4000% errors on their data meter (when AT&T's numbers are compared to those collected by DD-WRT routers).
2 GB limits on their data plans for smart phones.
Obviously they already prevent any pre-paid access to the Internet.
I never did hear if they ever disabled the fiber optic splitter they installed so all their traffic went directly to the NSA.
Seriously, these guys are the biggest threats to the Internet yet.
A little misleading (Score:3)
NEW: $25 FOR 500MB $5 for 10MB (previously $4.99 for 1MB) $15 for 100MB (previously $19.99)
It is only $500/GB if someone were to sip 10MB at a time. Although the price for the best deal ($50/GB) is still way higher than those on contract.
Does it expire? (Score:2)
I suspect that $50/GB is really not that terrible, comparatively, with month-to-month plans, if it doesn't expire and you can actually use the entire GB you payed for.
I say that, because I'm pretty sure that most folks on month-to-month plants don't really use as much bandwidth as they're paying for every month, and in the end, most of the contract folks are paying at least $50/GB too.
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This is not about the poor but tourists. (Score:2)
The problem with pay as you go data in the US and Canada is that tourists visiting have to pay through the nose whether they decide to roam or try to go "pay as you go" during their short trip.
It would be much better if the AT&T and the HSPA carriers in Canada offers day passes for tourists or even some sort of week pass at a reasonable price with a "rental" sim like you can get in Japan.
Not to worry.... (Score:3)
T-Mobile is way cheaper... oh wait...
Willingness to pay (Score:2)
Re:Willingness to pay (Score:5, Insightful)
In hilariously non-competitive markets, of course, willingness to pay and cost are more or less completely decoupled. The same is true for 'ahead of their time' products(where everbody's cost is much higher than anybody's willingness to pay, so the product stays in the lab). In a competitive market for a mature product, though, willingness to pay and cost are fairly closely related.
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Fundamental (Score:3)
That's true almost everywhere in Capitalism.
Re:Fundamental (Score:4, Insightful)
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"Afford the least" doesn't mean "use the least".
But yeah, I buy those gigantic toilet-paper cubes at Costco.
6-figure Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go customer (Score:2)
I'm a 6-figure making Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go (month to month fixed price) customer. I lay out $25/mo for an unlimited data plan and 300 voice minutes. I use the data plan like a rented mule - voice only occasionally.
Only chumps pay more. Cell phone contracts are for the weak-of-mind who think that their modern-day beeper is some kind of status symbol.
hey, its capitalism (Score:3)
Hey that's capitalism for you.
You don't like what you're being charged go elsewhere because to regulate what companies can charge is Marxism.
Or so I've been told by the libertarians, tea baggers, and republicans.
LOL (Score:2)
LOL. I pay â5.99 / month for an unlimited data plan:P WTF is this shit.
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LOL. I type euro symbol for great justice and get Ã:P WTF is this shit.
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LOL. I type â and get Ãf:P WTF is this shit.
Fascinating.. (Score:2)
I live in central Europe and my smart-phone has a pre-paid card with a 1GB data option enabled for 10 EUR (~14 USD) a month.
That's by far enough for e-mail chat and the occasional map. And I can get rid of it anytime I want (just don't have to extend it for the next month).
I'm always fascinated to hear the comparison from the new world.
a Guy I used to work with (Score:2)
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Nobody who is poor or living paycheque to paycheque NEEDS mobile data. I would argue they don't need cell phones at all but that's neither here nor there.
Tell me, where is the nearest payphone booth? I don't know what it is like where you live but here in Canada, the only payphones that seem to still exists are in airports and shopping malls. It is expected that almost anyone can have a talk and text cell phone. Mobile data is not something that the poor should consider even using.
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Nobody who is poor or living paycheque to paycheque NEEDS mobile data. I would argue they don't need cell phones at all but that's neither here nor there.
Tell me, where is the nearest payphone booth? I don't know what it is like where you live but here in Canada, the only payphones that seem to still exists are in airports and shopping malls. It is expected that almost anyone can have a talk and text cell phone. Mobile data is not something that the poor should consider even using.
The grand parent was talking about MOBILE DATA.
You are talking about PHONE CALLS.
See the difference?
Text is not considered mobile data. Even el-cheapo feature phones have text. Email, web surfing, multimedia are mobile data.
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Even el-cheapo feature phones have email, web surfing, and multimedia, though.
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I have to wonder what is wrong with the US. Not that Europe is perfect, the roaming rates for most data plans is criminal.
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Actually, just the opposite is true, in a way. Let's say you want to spend money on shoes. You could buy a $40 pair of Converses. I've done this plenty, they fall apart in a year of normal work (I walk up the stairs and up a 1/3 mile hill to my office job 5 days a week). Or you could spend $150 on a pair of military issue (Matterhorn, Bellville, etc; I have Bellville 770, $145 shipped from Botach) boots, waterproof (GoreTex with breathable canvas, not to mention the leather), insulated (200g/m^2 3M Thin
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A modern example of the Sam Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Injustice and touching on the Ramkin extension, well done.
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Summarizes to "I'm not rich enough to shop at Walmart". Ever buy a set of drill bits from China, and have them literally unwind themselves? Been there, seen that. Suddenly, Enco and McMaster are the cheapest way to drill holes.
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~Stop talking sense man! People might hear you and learn that they can live without the latest gadgets, or even realize that they don't need the highest levels of all services available to them. If that happens their bank accounts might fill up, their anxiety might go down, and they won't have to use shopping/services as a security blanket in their unfulfilled lives. Stop trying to undo 100 years of marketing already!~
And to whoever modded you off-topic, forget them. The hardest thing about railing against
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And if you can't afford to live near a library, fuck you!
How about don't tell the poor what they need and don't need?
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When our city passed the plan to have wireless installed city-wide, I called my council member to complain about it.
I asked her why the city needed to subsidize this plan (the gimmick was that the wifi provider would also provide private wifi for city purposes like cop cars, building inspectors, etc) when there was already cable or DSL available citywide.
She told me that they wanted to make internet access available inexpensively for the poor. When I asked her how she was going to make the computers used t