Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.96.981206092918.3599A-100000@ux1.cyberenet.net> Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1998 10:42:02 -0500 From: mailto:tuandbob@CYBERENET.NET Subject: Re: DEVEL-L Digest - 4 Dec 1998 to 5 Dec 1998 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
On Sun, 6 Dec 1998, Automatic digest processor wrote:> The game isn't to get something for nothing, and never was. It's to
> put the quo where it hurts the least in comparison to the benefit of the
> quid.
"Pay NO ATTENTION to the little man behind the screen!" Wizard of Oz, on being discovered. Misdirection just occurred.
You're correct, the "game" is not getting something for nothing, and never was. The "business" is fostering communications at the lowest cost for all, period, nothing else.
More misdirection deleted:
> Governmentally speaking...
>
> Because the concept of government is being taken over by the concept of
> economics...
>
> So sure, they'll pass the tax along, and make it sound like a great
> thing theyre doing, too, while they're at it, and that's fine and dandy.
> At least it keepts the idea alive that theres more to the world than
> being either a bean counter or a been-counted.
Which has what to do with the internet specifically, other than as a source of sin tax to be squandered (sinfully). Clever use of bean and been though!
> Specifically, that no one is exclusively a 'receiver' (aka consumer).
The little man behind the screen is at it again. Notice how cleverly the concept of message receiver is twisted into a general consumer concept.
> Get out there, send a few messages, and contribute your penny!
Bad poster! Bad poster! Cheap poster. Shame on me for contributing nothing to your favorite cause, and all to mine.
I contribute more than pennies. I do it indirectly by paying taxes that go for lots projects I don't support and don't believe various levels of government should be in. I do it by supporting charities who do mostly projects I support. I do it directly by doing health, education and renewable energy projects to meet the needs of various users overseas.
> (I was just reading where more people pay *local phone rates that are
> higher than their LD bill than vice versa, and didnt even know it.
A couple of reasons for the offset are that the government did something that was going tobe "good for us", like your one world government tax on the internet (I put the little man to work for me also). Another is that people have a total phone use budget. Because the local phone amount is now higher, the amount available for long distance is less. You can be very sure almost everyone knows about the off set, and most of the ways of generating additional revenue by itemizing and charging for previously grouped charges.
> If we can do that, we can pay for email:
You're implying "we" approve of over charging.
$25 would cover 2.5Meg traffic/ > mo or 80K/day -- do you do more than that? (Count text only, please!)
Poor little man behind the screen. I think you've abused him enough already.
the same overcharge being OK for the internet, then changing to a minimum use payment from a per unit charge, to admitting it's an overcharge by implying "even I" don't use more than 80K/day, to counting only text so rich folks with fast and fancy computers can have their graphics without extra tax, even though they could afford it more easily.
Whew! Give the little man a break. (Yes, that had double meaning.)
$25/mo may not mean much to you, but it's a whole months wages to a lot of people, like a months wages.
> > Monthly Bake Sale and Car Wash sponsored by Mrs. Jones 5th Grade Class to
> > pay Internet tax bill.
> >
> > Oh dear, I've become what I detest, long winded, rambling, and pompous!
> > Come on Y2K!
>
> Yeah, about then is when your headline will come to pass, in any case.
Only 391 days to go.
Invest in a renewable energy system now. That will be a contribution to the LDC's. Volume production will make costs go down for everyone. (I got my plug in too, nana nana na na)
If this post causes one person to take a critical, rather than emotional look at one project proposal and rational, it will be worth all the nasty grams (tax free so far) that I will get. Please send them directly to me, not to the group, who are probably sick and tired of it all.
Bob