"The average person is assumed by the social safety net to have internet at this point. Some doctor's offices are "portal driven", and calling them has a cheerful bot telling them to check the website."
Absolutely good point.
NONE of that needs broadband. None of it.
I have no problem with US gov't recognizing minimal basic internet access as an infrastructure issue to subsidized citizens who need such basic assistance.
(Maybe make the fucking ISPs earn their sweet monopoly deals for once instead of the taxpayer subsidizing THEM (even more) by the gov't paying retail prices, though....)
As much as I rail against them, I feel it's completely incompetent that basic gov't benefits aren't pegged to inflation.
And to be clear, I'm not talking about the objectively destitute or disabled. They genuinely need our assistance. But for the VAST majority of American poor?
https://www.heritage.org/pover...
"62 percent of "poor" households own a car; 14 percent own two or more cars.
* Nearly half of all "poor" households have air-conditioning; 31 percent have microwave ovens.
* Nationwide, some 22,000 "poor" households have heated swimming pools or Jacuzzis.
"Poor" Americans today are better housed, better fed, and own more property than did the average U.S. citizen throughout much of the 20th Century. In 1988, the per capita expenditures of the lowest income fifth of the U.S. population exceeded the per capita expenditures of the median American household in 1955, after adjusting for inflation.1
Better Off Than Europeans, Japanese
The average "poor" American lives in a larger house or apartment than does the average West European (This is the average West European, not poor West Europeans). Poor Americans eat far more meat, are more likely to own cars and dishwashers, and are more likely to have basic modern amenities such as indoor toilets than is the general West European population.
"Poor" Americans consume three times as much meat each year and are 40 percent more likely to own a car than the average Japanese. And the average Japanese is 22 times more likely to live without an indoor flush toilet than is a poor American."