PandoraXero
In the same way, having all the taxpayers pay for things like these will only serve to further damage our economy.
This statement makes no sense at all.
It's well-known and well-established that government-funded infrastructure projects
always result in a short-term stimulus to the economy in the form of new jobs. The creation of infrastructure
always results in long-term stimulus to the economy in the form of long-term private business projects.
Here's an example: Construction of the national highway system in the US raised the GDP by a substantial amount through the creation of short-term (albeit over several years) jobs, which in turn injected money into the economy. Completion of the highway system then resulted in the development of new transport and freight services, which further raised the GDP through the creation of the long-term businesses in trucking, freight, and transportation, and was an unexpectedly
huge boon to the auto industry. Our taxes pay for its maintenance and improvement.
All of this because the Federal Government invested in substantial construction projects.
Similar investment in a Public fiber infrastructure would have similar effects: Short-term construction jobs to manufacture and install the fiber, then long-term jobs in new ISPs that manage or lease the infrastructure. Secondarily, new Internet services will grow and create even more new jobs in the form of new services and websites, and major improvements to existing ones, and probably even new services we haven't thought of yet. The fees we pay on its use
or instead possibly from taxes pay for its maintenance and improvement.
Similarly, large investments in NASA would again have similar effects: Short-term jobs in manufacturing of launch systems and orbital platforms. Those launch systems and orbital platforms make space-based services and technologies cheaper and more useful, in turn creating global secondary job growth.
We already know the existing ISPs refuse to grow their infrastructure when they can instead double-dip. If investment from the private sector is not forthcoming, then well-regulated investment from Federal infrastructure projects is often the only way to make it happen.
Moreover, we all use the Internet. We all pay for it. We should have a return on our money in the form of improved service. We're not getting that. Appropriate regulation (price controls, infrastructure grants, etc.) can solve that problem if
people like you would actually let it happen.
This is not about government
control. This is about using the money we already spend more wisely
for our own benefit.