This is such a tiresome argument. Here's a paper in Nature that specifically endorses last mile internet infrastructure to improve farmers' income[1].
> but denied them the *rights a vaccine in the middle of a global pandemic!!!
What does this have to do with internet access?
> What could possibly be more offensive than that
You're just changing the subject.
> Capitalism is an absolute scourge.
People love to say this, but extreme global poverty has decreased from 36% globally in 1990 to 9.9% in 2015 even with population increasing. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than 1.90 international dollars per day. Here's a nice graph starting in 1900[2], fewer people live in crushing deprivation today than in 1900 and they are 7x more people today. Capitalism may not be the ultimate way to discover process and organize economically but it has nearly eradicated extreme poverty. Bringing the internet to new places will only help lift more people out of poverty. The assertion that it will only entrench the elite is completely without evidence.
> Building fiber infrastructure alone doesn’t help the impoverished. If anything, it just exacerbates inequality
You literally said that building fiber exacerbates inequality and I am pointing out that evidence points in the opposite direction. I get it, we all hate facebook, but that doesn't mean that any evidence backs up your claim.
If poverty is defined as an absolute amount of currency, and inflation exists, wouldn't that rate always trend down? You also have to ask to what degree capitalism is responsible for the changes you mention - a huge amount is going to be due to 1+ billion Chinese people increasing their quality of life - but is that really due to capitalism?
It's based on purchasing power parity[1] and is adjusted for inflation, not absolute USD in a given year.
> a huge amount is going to be due to 1+ billion Chinese people increasing their quality of life - but is that really due to capitalism?
Almost all of that happened after Deng's market reforms with the bulk of the decline after 1995[2], so yes. The top 10 provinces in GDP per capita are all SEZs where China liberalized markets and trade. There are plenty of critiques of capitalism that are interesting and valid, but it is great for creating wealth and surplus goods/services. And that's exactly how you lift people out of extreme poverty. The Baumol effect, access to markets, and access to capital investment all break people out of subsistence.
> but denied them the *rights a vaccine in the middle of a global pandemic!!!
What does this have to do with internet access?
> What could possibly be more offensive than that
You're just changing the subject.
> Capitalism is an absolute scourge.
People love to say this, but extreme global poverty has decreased from 36% globally in 1990 to 9.9% in 2015 even with population increasing. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than 1.90 international dollars per day. Here's a nice graph starting in 1900[2], fewer people live in crushing deprivation today than in 1900 and they are 7x more people today. Capitalism may not be the ultimate way to discover process and organize economically but it has nearly eradicated extreme poverty. Bringing the internet to new places will only help lift more people out of poverty. The assertion that it will only entrench the elite is completely without evidence.
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00631-0 [2] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-population-in-extre...