Internet Prices?!?

[Adventurewagen]

Am I the only one suprised at the expensive cost getting high speed internet? Recently we moved and lost all our "free" wireless networks in the area. We don't have cable, we don't have a home phone so getting a Cable modem or DSL is ridiculously expensive and frustrating.

I feel like getting internet should be cheap and easy. Doesn't it seem like for 20 bucks a month I'd be able to get internet? Half of everything on the internet is just another ad for somebody and the cost of the modems is pennies. I used to setup systems in ISP's and there overhead for servers and other hardware just isn't that much.

Where I live we have only two options: Qwest (DSL) or Comcast (cable) and its such a monopoly. If I want a 20 dollar a month deal (for 3 months) on cable its only valid if I'm already paying up the butt for cable TV and by the time they sell me their crap modem, activation fees and taxes it comes out to over 60 bucks a month just for a stinking internet connection! The lady on the phone asked me how I could live without cable TV!!! I said just fine thank you.

Same thing goes for cell phones. Anybody try to get a new phone lately cause theirs crapped out! There's another nightmare where they force you into 2yr agreements and still make you pay 30 bucks for a 2 cent phone.

I'm just really getting sick of these made up imaginary costs that things go for today. Too many Americans just put up with this BS and just pay the cost. It's like 10 yrs ago when AOL was 30 bucks a month for unlimited access and dial up, why hasn't internet gone the same way nowadays? If more people got fed up with the over inflated prices maybe things would go down but people are just fine paying 20 bucks for a music CD and don't think twice about dropping 11 bucks for a movie ticket! I know inflation is mixed in this, but I can say that my salary hasn't jumped along with everything else.

[tedebare]

How right you are. The Fed's want us to believe that inflation on everything is under control. It is NOT. I pay more when I go to the grocery store, when I get the utility bills, and when I go to the gas station.

I wonder what Bush is doing to get the gas prices down, especially before election time. Corporate powers are prevailing.......

[Amskeptic]

I'm just really getting sick of these made up imaginary costs that things go for today. Too many Americans just put up with this BS and just pay the cost.

It is irritating. The companies that institute these gouges then structure their call centers to make it impossible for you to ever speak with anyone who has discretion. And you the consumer do not want to bite off the head of the poor call-taker whose call is being "monitored for quality assurances."

Banks and credit card companies are getting insanely greedy as well.
Colin
(we have to slay the corporate beast and leave the human beings who are stuck working for them alone. yeah, right, go find those bastards who make the rules. . . good luck)

[spiffy]

=D>

I couldn't agree more.....we are stuck with comcast as well.

An internet Co-op would be a cool thing to set up.....or access should be part of the public infrastructure???

My wife and I have kept our same cheap cell phones and we use them for what they were intended...communication!! Who needs a damn camera, planner, email, toaster, french tickler in their damn phone.....and those ring tones.... I DON'T GET WHAT THE F***ING FASHION SHOW IS ALL ABOUT!! (sorry, I feel better now)

Another item on the 'suspect' list..... fluctuating gas prices grrrrr

[lovemybus]

I agree with you guys, but wasnt it like 8-10 years ago they were doing major fiber optic lines to supposrt the broadband. Remember how bottlnecked broadband was when it first came out... I think the prices are reflected from alot of that...

Not that I like paying it at all... but running fiber optics acrossed the nation, im sure wasnt cheap.
just a different POV.

[Adventurewagen]

Gas prices I don't worry about as much at least in the respect on the gouging. If Washington state lifted its taxes on gas it would be nearly 50 cents cheaper a gallon. It does bother me though on how Opec can just set the price per barrel to whatever they want but the oil refineries don't make near the killing as one would think. If you want gouging try natural gas, now theres a resource where the plants that mine it are getting rich, or maybe try pharmaceutical companies who spend more money creating useless drugs for rich people instead of making things for the masses that get covered by insurance or are subsidised by the government.

But back to the main subject. Over inflated prices on everyday stuff.

CD's = 20 dollars?
Internet = 60 bucks a month or more!!!
Cell phone... The last cell phone made that truly cost 300 bucks was probably 1985. Do you think a single cell phone today out of Taiwan is ever more than a few buck?

Another favorite is simple stuff like pop or bottles water. Do you think that 99cent coke out of the machine was anywhere near 99 cents?

I just don't get how these high prices get set or why they don't go down. And I really don't get why people continue to pay the price.

A better question is what items or services out there do you think are actually reasonable?

[Amskeptic]

Gas prices I don't worry about as much at least in the respect on the gouging.

High gas prices may be the only way we get off oil. Painful but true. If we were a civilized country, we would subsidize the low income commuter expenses while making fleets pony up at full retail.

OPEC knows damn well that oil supplies are fleeting. Like sports celebs, they have to get it ($$) while they can.

That said, it is the variations in regional gas prices that gets me riled. I paid $4.14 per gallon outside of Baker CA. No damn excuse for that.
Colin
(please note: sugar cane is more energy efficient than ethanol, eats up carbon in the atmosphere more effectively, and would help the economies of our southern neighbors. That's why Bush & Co. slapped 50% tariffs on sugar cane ethanol imports so we have to keep paying the oil guys who are trying to muscle in on the corn ethanol business. Brazil is worthy of our respect)

[spiffy]

Good article in National Geographic this month on alternative energy producers........nano tech produced super thin solar sheets that could be placed anywhere......now that we own a house, it would be fun and very gratifying to go solar and see the meter 'go backwards'.

[DjEep]

Same thing goes for cell phones. Anybody try to get a new phone lately cause theirs crapped out! There's another nightmare where they force you into 2yr agreements and still make you pay 30 bucks for a 2 cent phone.

Don't forget that they charge your kids $3 everytime they download a crappy 15 second clip of a Paris Hilton song for a ringtone.

[Adventurewagen]

Good article in National Geographic this month on alternative energy producers........nano tech produced super thin solar sheets that could be placed anywhere......now that we own a house, it would be fun and very gratifying to go solar and see the meter 'go backwards'.

Another cool area right now is the nano-tech industry. They are making strides with nano sized motors and other things like that. Maybe someday cars will run based off of something nano-like that we haven't even thought up yet.

That said, it is the variations in regional gas prices that gets me riled. I paid $4.14 per gallon outside of Baker CA. No damn excuse for that.

Might not be an excuse but there is a reason. Crude prices are more than 50% of the overall cost which fluctuates but should be consistent across the country. Refining of the crude (oil companies) only skim an average of 10% or less while the government takes 20% or more. The big reason for fluctuating costs is the distribution and marketing of the gas. Bakersfield is in the middle of nowhere. Gas has to be trucked in from refineries in California and even Washington to supply the city with gas. About 5 years ago when two major CAT crackers exploded at refineries in California they were trucking gas all the way to Nevada from Washington causing the prices their to sky rocket. Then again the marketing portion is probably what we see most prevalent. You go to a small town and things are cheaper but in the big city with more money prices can be elevated more at the pump by the chain selling the gas.

I would agree though that high gas prices may ultimately be the solution to reducing the amount we all drive and consume, but I don't ever see getting subsidized gas for people in a low income bracket. Super high gas prices will just eliminate a certain level of society from driving altogether while alot of people will just eat the cost and continue driving their huge SUV's and maybe not buy that new BMW every other year anymore.

Another big issue though is how we plan our communities nowadays. Urban planners and land developers don't built communities that are self sufficient anymore. Unless you live in small town USA (circa 1950) or in a downtown also designed back in the day you have to use your car to get to anything. Too many people live in an endless sea of suburbia where they are forced into driving their SUV 10 miles just to get to the nearest Walmart/Best Buy/McDonalds/AppleBee's complex to get food and gas. It's really sad. Bakersfield is a good example. Just drive East or west out of Bakersfield and you'll pass cookie cutter neighborhoods followed by stamped out consumer centers and so on for miles. The corner gas station and corner market are all but lost.

It's going to take a combination of both for things to change, maybe super high gas prices will force this change. People making minimum wage can't afford to live where they work and now they can't afford to drive to work where they can't live!

[Amskeptic]

That said, it is the variations in regional gas prices that gets me riled. I paid $4.14 per gallon outside of Baker CA. No damn excuse for that.

Might not be an excuse but there is a reason. The big reason for fluctuating costs is the distribution and marketing of the gas. Bakersfield is in the middle of nowhere.

I promise you that I have been in the middle of far greater "nowheres" than outside of Baker CA, like the middle of North Dakota. The I-15 corridor is transporting fuel to Las Vegas for crying out loud where regular is $2.79. and it was $3.03 in Barstow so why $4.14 in between the two points? Wait. . . . I'll tell ya why, because they knew damn well you didn't have a choice once you had to pull off the interstate. Hello gouging, good-bye decency.
Colin

[Adventurewagen]

I wonder what the "mark up" laws are in California. I know in washington they have strict rules on how far above and below a certain magic number the stations themselves can charge gas. Its to keep Joe Texaco from raising the price by 5 bucks next time we have some state of the emergency power outtage or something. Same goes for big chains pricing out the lone mini-mart guy.

Sounds like it must be the "movie theatre affect" where you go to the theatre and after paying them your soul for a lousy ticket they jab you once again with 7 dollar half empty bags of over packaged M&M's because you want them sooooo bad and have no other choice!

[baygeek]

Gas prices I don't worry about as much at least in the respect on the gouging. If Washington state lifted its taxes on gas it would be nearly 50 cents cheaper a gallon. It does bother me though on how Opec can just set the price per barrel to whatever they want but the oil refineries don't make near the killing as one would think. If you want gouging try natural gas, now theres a resource where the plants that mine it are getting rich, or maybe try pharmaceutical companies who spend more money creating useless drugs for rich people instead of making things for the masses that get covered by insurance or are subsidised by the government.

But back to the main subject. Over inflated prices on everyday stuff.

CD's = 20 dollars?
Internet = 60 bucks a month or more!!!
Cell phone... The last cell phone made that truly cost 300 bucks was probably 1985. Do you think a single cell phone today out of Taiwan is ever more than a few buck?

Another favorite is simple stuff like pop or bottles water. Do you think that 99cent coke out of the machine was anywhere near 99 cents?

I just don't get how these high prices get set or why they don't go down. And I really don't get why people continue to pay the price.

A better question is what items or services out there do you think are actually reasonable?

this is where you have the power: in your choices

do you need to buy the whole CD? download the tunes you want from iTunes at a lower price (or entertain the thought of illegal downloads)...

ISP prices - many communities have subsidized ISP's for really cheap prices; or just run dial-up at a discount rate...

cellphone - do you need all the latest gewgaws on a cellphone? the cheapest or even the free phones with a year contract are usually great phones...

and 99 cents for anything out of a machine is a waste of money - sodas are unhealthy and you can purify your own water and carry it with you for the cost of your own water...

it's all about the choices you make and deciding how you want to spend your money -- do you want to keep doling it out to corporations or would you rather keep most of it yourself and purchase things that are important to you and yours?



just a thought...

[DurocShark]

I haven't bought a CD in 10 years.
I don't have cable TV.
I don't hvae cable Internet.
DSL isn't offered yet here.
Only cell phone is company provided. (Son bought his own though... Pay as you go plan.)
I don't touch iTunes or any other invasive software (sigh... except Windoze. That's slowly changing. Once I can get my software in Linux I'm gone.)

Adjusted for inflation, $60 a month isn't much higher than the $20 a month we used to pay for dial up in the mid 90's. But I refuse to support Concast.

My internet access is through a Verizon Wireless Broadband card. Also company paid for.

I own my cars.
I haven't financed a car since 97.
Both cars get reasonable mileage.
My TV is an old 27" tube. No HD.
Local news and PBS come in just fine over an antenna.

I guess I'm just a poor consumer.

[baygeek]

I haven't bought a CD in 10 years.
I don't have cable TV.
I don't hvae cable Internet.
DSL isn't offered yet here.
Only cell phone is company provided. (Son bought his own though... Pay as you go plan.)
I don't touch iTunes or any other invasive software (sigh... except Windoze. That's slowly changing. Once I can get my software in Linux I'm gone.)

Adjusted for inflation, $60 a month isn't much higher than the $20 a month we used to pay for dial up in the mid 90's. But I refuse to support Concast.

My internet access is through a Verizon Wireless Broadband card. Also company paid for.

I own my cars.
I haven't financed a car since 97.
Both cars get reasonable mileage.
My TV is an old 27" tube. No HD.
Local news and PBS come in just fine over an antenna.

I guess I'm just a poor consumer.

exactly - this is why bitching about the high prices of consumables (especially what some people would see as luxuries) is unwarranted...