*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas
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The Phone Bill's Going Up

     Do the poor need "information stamps" as well as food stamps?
Maybe so.
     Home computers with printers can cost $3,500. Ditto for
communications satellite receivers. Cable television costs $125 a year.
Data bases for computers can cost $125 an hour. The phone bill's going
up.
     Few care, but they are alarmed. The gap between information poor
and information rich is widening.
     "So what else is new?" you say. And well you might. The gap
between rich and poor is widening everywhere -- food, housing, health
care. And isn't survival more important than information?
     For the individual, yes. But in a democracy information is more
than just another essential service.
     Deprive the poor of services and you undermine the democratic
promise. Deprive the poor of information and you undermine the
democratic process.
     When pushed, many do not really believe in self-governing.
Consider foreign policy. Many accept that it's better left to experts than
the people. Some think the rich, or professional classes, have the right to
rule the rest of us.
     But if you still cling to the utopian dream that democracy can work,
the impact of the information revolution on the poor will concern you,
too.
     When Thomas Jefferson and his friends thought about democratic
fundamentals 200 years ago, they thought three ingredients essential.
Widespread education, to insure each of us can use information; First
Amendment guarantees of our access, as speakers and listeners, to a
marketplace of ideas; and libraries in which the knowledge of kings is
freely available to all.
     Little is said about it today, but such basics are just as necessary
now as then. Unfortunately, we don't have a Jefferson to apply the
principles from yesterday's American Revolution to the policy for today's
communications revolution.
     Yet his influence lingers. Two examples are "lifeline" phone rates,
and "universal service" for cable TV.
     Many families' monthly phone bills run $100 or more. But a
minimal service for under $5 is still available in some cities. It permits
unlimited calls in, a minimum number of calls out, and then charges per
call. It's a "lifeline," access to emergency services at an affordable price.
     Progressive cities' cable TV franchises provide for "universal
service." No one is excluded from the cable community. The minimum
channels are available free. Fancy entertainment add-ons are extra.
     Such policies are consistent with the earlier encouragement for
distribution of books, magazines and newspapers with postal subsidies.
     What's next? Consider public libraries. Ours in Iowa City offers
audio and videotapes, films, records and prints, as well as newspapers,
magazines and books. It's "card catalog" is on a touch-screen computer. It
checks out expensive video cameras and recorders. It's progressive and
responsive.
     But it can't figure out how to offer $125-an-hour computer data
bases -- instant access to bibliographies and publications. So they're still
limited to the community's administrators, professionals and wealthy.
     Every Christmas catalog makes the problem worse. Home
computers. Information utilities (data bases for the home). Access to
communications satellites -- with home dish receivers or expensive cable
services. Scanners and shortwave receivers. Alternative telephone services
and equipment. Video tape recorders and cameras.
     Of course, some are just expensive toys. For example, no one needs
a wall-size TV. But many are central to citizen participation in an
information age.
     The information poor. A democratic society requires they get more
than a turkey this holiday season.
                                              [ICPC December 20, 1982]
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