I disagree that minitel itself played any significant role in France's current situation. It was the French governments inability to get out of the way. Minitel was also in the U.S. in the early 90s, but didn't last because competition wasn't outlawed.
This is a substantial step up to the current alternative. No one is being 'locked' in, this will increase education and communication, and therefore the welfare of the users. Than, ISPs will come in and wipe them out. You have to start somewhere.
My claim was not correct. However, a lot of blogs, journals, books etc. are used as references for Wikipedia.
Regardless, this is a huge step up. We must not let perfection get in the way of progress.
FB will not have any control, people can choose to use it, or not. They are also free to pay for an ISP when an affordable and reliable one arrives. Which at this point is not possible.
Facebook is a business, yes. Does that mean they do not positively impact the world? Absolutely not. IIRC they are providing FB and Wikipedia (among other resources), those two resources alone will allow people the access to the entirety of human knowledge, and the ability to connect to anyone in the world. Via there phone. That is _huge_. Yes, it isn't perfect, and yes FB is investing for advertising in ~5-10+ years to come. But, that doesn't mean that hundreds of millions of people's lives will be dramatically better as a result. I apologise of this was slightly incoherent, I'm on mobile and do not have time to re-read.
I'd suggest anyone here seriously interested in the effects of Affirmative Action and similar policies read 'Affirmative Action Around the World' by Thomas Sowell. It's only 200pages, but incredibly sourced and well written. Highly recommend it for those wanting a further understanding.
Income. Money people make is being stolen by gunpoint.
Irrespective of the proposed uses of the money is, stealing is stealing.
I can put a gun to Bill Gate's head and demand 50% of his wealth and spend it only for 'good' things. But, doesn't mean I didn't steal.
Rent control and outrageous zoning laws are _not_ a free market. It's funny, and sad, that the two cities who have the most laws in relation to accomodation, NY and SF, are both of the cities who have the highest prices.
It is most certainly not. The inefficiency of USPS doesn't speak to the inherent inability for buses, trains, postal services and internet providers need to be subsidised. That it a huge claim you've made, one link on the inefficiency of USPS(a government funded service...) does not suffice.
The inefficiency of the USPS speaks to the inefficiency of government services. They've lost $47bn over 10 years. Why? Because they have no incentive to care about their business model, because they can be apparently infinitely supplied by taxpayers.
Facebook is not monopoly. The real definition of a monopoly is the sole provider of a good or service, which has apparently been forgotten. FB is not the only social network, nor will it ever be.
Who does have the ability to use force to create artificial monopolies though?
I've managed to read on my iPhone and my Mac, I've found it easier on the phone due to portability and the touch screen. But the i've found I can't sustain long periods on either.
The public infrastructure which you've described didn't 'fail' because of lack of funding, it 'failed' because of lack of aligned incentives.
Please specifically outline how Uber and similar services are good for only the 'short term' and will be 'dystopian' in the long, I'm very curious.
Thinking of buying an iPad just for this use case. Most of my technical books are in PDF form, converting them to any other format ruins the readability, and the PDF on the kindle is terrible to navigate.
Private valuations aren't based on current revenues, they're betting on future revenues. In the case of Uber, they're predicted to grow 6x from last year (on target) and 3x in 2016. Another example, when eBay bought PayPal in 2001 future revenues from as far as 2011 (10 years!) were baked into the 1.6bn price. (Which was a _great_ purchase)
I still don't understand how gender plays into this, I have no data to support my presumptions. But I would think that it might make an effect but not a significant one.