Portland the Social Utopia of Free Wireless Goes Lenin

A few weeks ago it was announced that the free Wi-Fi network that was being deployed in Portland was being scrapped. Buried above ground by its own arrogance and stupidity. (Think Lenin.)

The idea: get a company to come into Portland, build up a free network for people to use - as long as they endured ads on 1/3 of the screen which would pay for it and make that company a profit - in order for all of Portland - especially the poorer neighborhoods - to get onto the Internet.

Noble.

Stupid, but Noble.

The idea that people who complain to the city about getting food, no money to maintain their own houses due to the rising tax bills, and who cannot afford to get PCs - let alone laptops that cost $1,000 and up - could use the free wi-fi provided by Portland to get onto the Internet so they would not be "dis-advantaged" in the communication age  could not pass the laugh test - yet the city Government thought it was a fine idea and went with it - ignoring all reality of what a MARKET is.

Standing in the middle of an intersection you got great reception - but motorists were mildly annoyed. Standing on a street corner in the rain with another person holding an umbrella worked better - but then you would be arrested for blocking the sidewalk. Wi-Fi can barely go through a wall, yet it was deployed that the idea of it going through a glass and steel building which kills most radio signals was the method of using it - and they thought it would work?

This is a good example of socialism ideals vs reality of the real world - they fail badly.

Wi-MAX goes through walls (think of Wi-Fi as AM radio and Wi-Max as FM) - but the same problem of people needing money to HAVE the PC and technology to get to Wi-MAX still applies. The people that a city "builds" it for are the least able to afford to use even free services. The city would have to buy 20,000 laptops to give to each household in order for them to get to it. Course  it would be "free" - the richer people would be taxed to pay for the social equalization program (You made more than $70,000, you get a bonus tax of 1,000 to help pay for some people who do not make as much as you. Feel good about it!) This is how the Federal Government and most states are actually run - tax the people who have succeeded in order to support people who cannot - or do not want to - succeed. If they fail they get supported. If they succeed they go off support - but then they have to work to get the same benefits. If they are happy where they are at, then WHY work? (Yes, old argument, but it is true. They were writing about this in the 1760s in England and in the colonies about making it too easy to support the poor.)

Wi-Fi is dead! Long Live Wi-MAX! may be the next phrase you hear from Portland.