Since at least a decade ago when phone booths went the way of the dodo bird, however that's not the issue under discussion, which is internet access.

LOL. Go ahead and try to negotiate the terms of your next cell contract and let us know how it goes. It's take it or leave it pal.

Right, because there are never power imbalances in negotiations for essential services.

The purpose of modularization isn't to eliminate complexity but to compartmentalize it. This allows for design and problem resolution by mere mortals.

So far, they've been deciding they like it just the way it is.

Robots fairly soon. Until then the lower classes will be pushed outwards and have to put up with long commutes. Wages will rise just enough to offset the cost and inconvenience so that they don't all move to Kansas instead, but not enough to actually make it worth it in terms of quality of life. Being poor sucked in the past, it sucks in the present and it'll suck in the future. Feel free to propose a new socio-economic system that we haven't already tried as the one we're using now is merely the least bad option rather than a perfect solution.

Apparently your education was somewhat lacking as you have no concept of the difference between a right and a sense of entitlement. If you want to stay where you are then purchase the property, otherwise if you can't afford to live there then it's time to move. Welcome to capitalism, the worst system imaginable, except all the others.

On Earth no, except the high value items though that is more than you might think. Still, there are a huge number of uses for Asteroid mining products off Earth. Most likely a profitable course of action would be to go after high value targets for shipment to Earth and then use the assorted byproducts for off Earth projects, of which there are many valuable candidates. The only real reason this hasn't happened already is the high cost of getting out of our gravity well. Solve that and you'll see an explosion of off Earth activity. There are actually a variety of solutions to that problem that don't require new science, mostly just new engineering.

True, but if it's profitable they won't be planning on doing just a little. I'm all for it, but a bit of thinking about it ahead of time and some sensible regulations could head off a huge number of unnecessary environmental impacts.

Well, if you're going to mine raw materials in space and ship them to Earth, they would need to be high value items rather than bulk commodities. Things like Platinum, Osmium, etc. Iron would likely never make sense.

Sure we do, it's just that most of the choices suck even worse. Feudalism 2.0 anyone?

Sadly the killbot's preset kill limit makes this option increasingly less feasible.

It's great for the people who are still employed. The job market for the highly skilled is going to be amazing for the next few decades. The average schmoe on the other hand has a lot to worry about.

The problem is that it doesn't have to replace you 100% in order to decimate the job market. Smart tools that automate 2/3rds of what you do would mean mass layoffs across the industry.

Everything is for sale at the right price. Being privately held just means they can't do a hostile takeover.

I find it a bit confusing, they're big and have cash, why not just buy Valve and call it a day?