Follow-Up File: Free Phones

I wouldn’t object if ALL the free phones could do would be to dial 911. I’m already tired of representatives of the “poor minorities” that haven’t learned how to dial properly and get my land line and my cell line “by mistake”.

It’s amazing to me that anyone would try to argue FOR free cell phones as a “right” in our society, regardless of who the responsible parties are.

Hell, what do I know? I’m a friggin weirdo but the standards of 98% of people here.

$2.2 billion in scratch though eh? That’s a pretty big number.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so hopeless, 97% against the idea in the context that a lot of progressives visit this site really is a pretty good number….even for an informal/unscientific poll.

I am in favor of poor people having the ability to call authorities in an emergency. Hell, I will even pay for them to be able to call a few family members, within reasonable limits, on the taxpayer dime.

But that is not what this program has morphed into. People who are perfectly capable of paying for their own cell phone are getting one for free, and are getting a very liberal (pun intended) plan that allows them to call and text everyone and anyone.

Let’s call this what it is: a government-subsidized means for liberal political groups to be able to reach their base with political messages. And us conservative “rich” folks are paying for these groups to have the ability to screw us even further in the future.

And let’s not forget the biggest financial beneficiary of this program: the cell phone companies.

I’m far from a Liberal buddy.I was simply pointing out that this bullshit really took off in 1984 under Reagan with free phone services to the poor. Both parties hands are all over this cookie jar.

I thought cell phone carriers were not allowed to block 911 calls, period, even if they are not on any active plan. Is this not the case? I definitely know all carriers must allow 911 calls from non-customers who happen to be on their towers.

Another well-intentioned government program that went a awry once the cash started flowing. Fits even wrote that 40% of the recipients are not eligible.

Then, how’d they get the freebies? From unscrupulous cell phone provides who gamed the system.

Sounds a lot like efforts to provide affordable housing for poor people, which when abused by unscrupulous lenders, caused the market collapse.

Or, like healthcare, with unscrupulous providers and insurers gaming the system.

This is America’s broken record. Someone tries to do good and greedy folks ruin it for everyone.

PS. This notion that a free market will take care all of societies needs is absurd. Oh, wait… maybe those liberal history books are wrong… perhaps the free market is what built our interstate highway system and provided electrical lines for the most rural parts of the country.

Man, do I have to explain this again?

It has nothing to do with handing out phones to poor people, black people or whatever other group. It is about the Telco industry doing anything it can to move into new markets and set the market up exactly the way they like it as the winds change (while getting a few sweet, sweet tax break that return more than their costs out of it). Making it a govt handout issue just makes it easier to distract everyone.

The poor, black or whatever is just another smoke screen to get you to talk about something else. Why else do you think Jim Clyburn’s daughter, Mignon is an FCC chairperson? It is so that she always asks the eternal question “What does this do for the black community”, so that just enough people get pissed off and it turns into a race or class issue. It is to guarantee that no one asks “Why are both of the lawyers argusing this matter before us on some Telco’s payroll (man AT&T knows how to play this game)?”. I’m not making this up. Go back to almost any hearing where she says “What does this do for the black community” and almost always both parties representing the matter are on some Telco’s dole, just like many of the FCC chairmen (McDowell will always have my ire).

It doesn’t matter if this began with Regan, Clinton or Rutherford B. Hayes, it is how this game is played. Complaining about someone other than you getting a deal just makes it easier. Don’t believe me, just Google this crap. Same game over and over again. Remember, OK players pay off one side, great players pay off all sides, get a tax break that is sweeter than their costs and manage to lock out their competition all in one stroke.

So please continue to jerk off over left and right, the lobbyists want you to.

Hate when you and others generalize people…..I’m liberal on many social issues, and I’m against the cell phone program. Like one other post, I’d agree with them for 911 use. But no one is entitled to a phone.

Who actually benefits from the “poor” having the cell phones provided to them? I’m sure the poor would prefer to have the $ 50 per month instead of a phone– so who gets the $ 50 per month (or whatever, phone companies are not giving this away)? My guess is AT&T, Verizon, etal like this. What do you think?

Sort of like food stamps– you think grocery store owners hate them? You think Coca Cola hates them? You think PepsiCo (Frito Lay, Pepsi) hates them? What about Nabiso?

If you are a shareholder in any company that provides goods or services that are provided to the “poor”, which are paid for by the government and you are totally against it– consider the “hypocrisy”.

We have a “flow up” economy not a “trickle down” economy.

“Every metric we’ve seen points unambiguously to the efficacy of the latter and the failure of the former …” Damn skippy fits. Socialism has never and will never work because the citizens do not work. Don’t produce anything and will reap what you sow. Is that what the powers that be want? A nation of nothing?

Let’s honestly look at what this… pork barrel spending. Trading cell phones for votes. Why not install free land lines instead? It’s far cheaper. And since when does emergency dispatch utilize text messaging?

“Wait … they had cell phones back in 1984? No … Reagan’s FCC pursued the concept with land lines.”

A stupid argument. A phone is a phone.

FITS writes a followup and still doesn’t mention that most of the additional cost has come from fraud by private companies. Free market FTW!

The perfect word for yet another goverment funded program for the poor “ENABLE” a word they use in rehab for the people who help and allow the addicted to continue with there use and addiction. That is exactly what the government has become for the poor. They enable them to stay poor…I mean who needs a job if everything just comes to you free.. I mean I’m starting to wonder why i work 40 hrs a week when I could just sit on my ass and have more. i mean shit the supposable poor eat way better than my family. I know this because I stand behind them at the grocery store and see two loaded down buggies and then I see the EBT card come out of a wallet loaded with cash by a woman with a new manicure and nails and then lug her grocerries out to her Escalade. Seems to me I might be better off poor than middle class!! Oh, wait I can’t b/c I didn’t get pregnant with 4 different babies daddies and stayed in school and went to college and did what I was supposed to do so, therefore I can’t get government assistance because I was responsible yet I live paycheck to paycheck for the state. I can’t get a raise b/c lack of funds but they get cell phones now.

Why did you remover my comment? Is it on another thread? This is just another example of Will doing his part to serve his masters by increasing class hatred…keep us at each other’s throats while our pockets are picked and our rights are trampled by those who would enslave us.

I never realized that these “FREE” phones were actually paid in part by the $2.50 charge on my and all other paying customers cell phone bill. They aren’t free after all. We are buying these phones for them. Who Knew?

The original purpose of cell phones for the poor was to help them get jobs. In that case, shouldn’t the gov’t provide them with a Macy’s gift card to buy some interview suits and cab fares to job interviews?