I'm an unfortunate captive of the oligopoly of the internet industry in the USA. In many places, you have 2-3 choices of internet, and all of them suck ass. I'm in this situation. All internet providers in my area have a 1-1.5 terabyte data cap. So when I download Call of Duty for 250 gb and it fails and has to update or reinstall, I've wasted 500 gb, and have now reached 50% of my data cap in just 1 day. There are crazy fees, for example, Cox Cable says:
If you go over, we’ll automatically add 50 gigabytes of data for $10 to your next bill. That's enough for about 15 hours of streaming HD video. If you use that 50 gigabytes, we automatically add another 50 gigabytes for $10 and so on until you reach our $100 limit of data overage charges or until your next usage cycle begins.
So your $90 a month internet can easily become $190 a month, which is fuckin criminal, like that is so scummy and asinine how that can even be legal. But it is perfectly legal. The FCC is also looking into these data caps but now that we have a new anti-federal government president elect... This is probably toast.... Nothing will change now that most federal agencies are about to be deleted.
From a technology standpoint too, nothing is really getting better
Comcast is still using Coax instead of Fiber Optic and desperately trying to convince people that somehow, someway coax can be just as good. Do with that info what you will, I have no opinions on it. There was a Federal program started recently to expand rural internet access, which will probably be gutted in 2025 leaving many without suitable internet again. Fiber Optic is fast, but still, not new technology, and doesn't solve a critical issue.... It doesn't matter if you have 2 Gigabit internet if no one in the world is uploading even half that fast. A single download on Steam is like 450 Mbps, Epic Games launcher is horrifically slow. I get like 120 Mbps max when downloading Fortnite updates even with 1500 Mbps internet hard wired to my router with top tier hardware
It's just sad to think about the future of internet in the USA, and knowing we'll be imprisoned by these data caps for the foreseeable future.
So the US did in fact have a process where the government did give money to get broadband to the rural. But as is the nature with this country, was not a federal workforce, but was a company based one. The companies pocketed the money, got a few people hooked up, sat on their asses, then when people complained at them years later they responded they didn't have enough money to connect people.
And good lord I'd take English National Health Service over the US "pay an insurance company to argue why they shouldn't pay for your healthcare"
I do have a question on the independence, over here in the states the conversation was that Scotland stayed because to break from UK would be requiring a separate entry into EU with a lot less benefits because England was one of the special ones. Always figured that Scotland might make another attempt after Brexit, is there something I missed? I admit y'alls politics I don't quite get. Probably a lot like my talking individual state politics to you guys.
Scotland stayed in the UK because people bought into the fear-mongering being spread by the UK government. There were several fronts the UK targeted us with. Pensions was one (which scared all the old folks), currency was another (even though there was no real reason we couldn't continue to use the pound). The economy was also targeted under the argument that we were too small a country to sustain ourselves, despite having a similar population size to Norway who survive extremely well as an independent nation. Between oil, tourism, gaming/tech industry, and whisky exports we could have not only survived but thrived. One other argument was that we'd have to reapply for entry into the EU and that staying in the UK guaranteed we'd remain in Europe, only for English voters to vote the UK out of the EU several years later. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU but it didn't matter as it was a UK wide election, so basically we were told to shut the fuck up and put up. This should have been a significant change in circumstances that would trigger another independence referendum, but such referendums require UK parliament approval and the Tory scum wouldn't let us hold one. Personally I would have been inclined to declare independence unilaterally, but given how 55% of the population were chicken-shits in 2014, it would be unlikely to happen. There's also the cultural aspect that stops Scotland becoming independent. A large part of the population are Protestant and have been brainwashed through generations to believe in the laughable antiquated concept of King & Country. Basically Scotland has a long history of being kicked in the teeth by the English ruling class. So much so that many people have absolutely no confidence in self-determination or belief in their own ability to thrive and succeed. If only these people who feel that they need to be looked after would fuck off to the England they love so much, Scotland could move forward into the 21st century as a progressive, forward-thinking nation. Independence supporters always get labelled as rascist and anti-English, but the opposite is the truth. We're welcoming to everyone who wants to make their home here and contribute to making the country a success - English, African, American, Chinese, whatever.
I really appreciate the dive into the politics there! As I talked with a coworker, to start understanding politics understanding historical context is important and I can keep some understanding with other countries, it's hard enough to know the nuance of all of our states, figuring out how to get started with other countries is difficult so the primer really helps. Some of this sounds familiar over here on the antiquated thoughts driving politics that should have fallen by the wayside years ago, though I think a few of yours might be older than ours is. Friend visited the UK recently and traveled throughout, like I told him, I intellectually knew how old that area is but realizing that there were places that were historic before our country even existed is still kinda baffling. But I digress.
Having to do a dive into the Tories as I just knew them as your conservatives, it's interesting that both the UK Conservative party and Scottish Conservatives definitely have a lot that I look at and go "That really does look like (Pre-Trump) Republicans" then every once in a while I see them supporting something that I realize if a Democrat would try to bring forward they'd be shouted down as being a communist. But what's most fascinating dichotomy between our countries is your conservatives are staunchly fighting to keep the UK together, as you say wouldn't allow you to hold a referendum after making you all leave the EU. Over in the States our Conservatives have gotten in bed with the US South which constantly yells about and threatens to secede again, and the Republican party is the one where you're going to find the confederate (not the confederate, flag, Virigina Battle Flag but that'd involve them knowing their own 'heritage') flag all over the place so you could argue our conservatives are more seperationists. Growing up with this creates a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to be opposed to splitting, though like with the pulling out of the EU and as you described there's actually a lot of ability to be successful to sustain yourselves that's makes sense... vs our guys have the likes of most of our southern states who cry how much they hate the federal government, yet percentage-wise are some of our most reliant on federal funds.
It's hard to know what the right move is in this post-truth world as we all have our biases and legitimate reasons for thinking the way that we do. I remember around the turn of the millennium thinking that the rise of the internet would herald in an new era of enlightenment where access to information would increase the intelligence of literally everyone. Boy, was I wrong. Turns out the Information Age should have been called the Disinformation Age.
I think the rise of Trump is a reaction to a broken system that has become too corrupt and too big to sustain itself. It might not be all bad in the long term, but right now it feels like the world is falling apart. If you look at all systems (particularly biological) they tend to eventually decentralise to function more effectively. The lungs, liver, heart, kidneys, stomach all function independently from each other yet work together to benefit the whole, trading off excess resources for things that they lack yet need. Evolution created this system from what was a primordial soup of waring organisms, viruses, cells, bacteria, etc. Perhaps humanity is on the cusp of that transition into a more coherent functioning planetary system. Countries should use the resources they have and trade the excess for things that they don't have but need, much like the organs in the body do. Perhaps America needs to decentralise and has gotten too big to function effectively. I don't know, but these are the kind of things I think about now and again.
There's a lot about the way the world works that makes little sense so something has got to change. Take a simple example like prawns caught off the west coast of Scotland. How can it be more efficient to send them to China to get packaged before returning again to be consumed? Utter madness! But that's the centralised system of exploitation. It's cheaper, but neither effective nor healthy.
Take the banking crisis where money was thrown at the banks to bail them out. What a dumb idea that achieved absolutely nothing. It was like sticking a band aid on a gunshot wound. It stopped the bleeding for a while, but didn't fix the problem. Then you look at Iceland who did the complete opposite to everyone else and let their banks fail. The bankers ended up in jail like they rightly should have done and now their economy is booming.
I don't know where I'm going with all this, I kind of fell down a rabbit hole of hoping that there's a light at the end of the dark tunnel we all seemingly find ourselves in.
Hah, my dad was the same way about the internet, and... not wrong, it looked so hopeful, yet now so dark. But then again, I'm a guy who hasn't had the proper combination of time/money/ability to get out of my country as the closest border is an 8 hour straight drive so about as close to the center of big country talking to someone on the other side of the world about the politics of our lands, so, who knows, maybe a little light there.
The thing I find is that... so much of what's going on is a pattern. Been joking when talking with my dad about the book World War Z I understand why people follow Nostradamus more, as a book written in 2006 is talking about the very problems that are happening today and coming up with some honestly concerning predictions. But then, a student of history and paying attention to current events can make someone look like a seer. As you say, the shipping to China, it's madness, except China has been pushing to take over just about everyones markets by being the cheapest even over keeping it own countries, but now they're becoming a dominant superpower again. I know in the US situation, it was because the Pre-Trump Republicans had become so business "friendly" (bowed the knee to the businesses above all else) that their attitude of "Free market" was fine to ship everything overseas to be made even at the cost of the workers here.
The banking crisis as you talk about, here again, but it was the Democrats that bailed them out... why? Aren't they opposition to the Republicans? The thing is the Democrats in the 90s freaked out when Ronald Reagan got in power, then H.W. Bush followed him, and so Clinton came in as the business friendly Democrat, and that's been the doctrine since. There hasn't actually been a workers party in the US as long as I've been alive.
I wish we could've been like Iceland, but when Democrats had control of the house, senate, and presidency they couldn't even get a healthcare plan that involved a government option, just the government giving insurance companies money, going after the banks is a non-starter in this country probably until the next depression.
Trump... honestly was one of the logical conclusions (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that), on one hand he's been the anti-establishment. In my state, where the capitol is over 1000 miles away, and I'm one of the closer half of the country, people have been sick of "DC elites", not all there's entire discussions on the Republican strategies otherwise, and the person that hurts the elites must be good. Trump is part of the establishment now, but he doesn't act like it, and the news doesn't act like it, still treats him like an outsider. That got a lot of people up when they don't pay attention to any news.
I think a lot of the problems caused and had by the US is by age, the country punches way above its weight class, lot of power very very fast. That wouldn't be a problem except we're still dealing with the fallout of our civil war that was 160 years ago, but the way the country views it is as if it were ancient times. Hell there are people who were alive when Civil Rights happened and yet it's taught in schools like it is so far back no one could remember it. If you're at all curious on that I do have a bit of an unhinged TED talk here in where our school history fails to discuss the context that's happened through history. On if that's on purpose, that's yet another completely different unhinged TED talk lol.