Separate and decidedly unequal

For yet more of America's penchant for favoring the wealthy, even more than human nature would have it, we need only look no further than technology in the country:

Unequal Internet Access "Widening the Gap" Between Rich and Poor

There's a shock, huh? Anyway, a bit from the article:

As many schools are racing to adopt the latest technologies—tablets, e-readers, cell phones—in their classrooms, low income students and poorly funded school districts are being left in the dust. A survey of middle and high school teachers released Thursday found that the growing gap in internet access between rich and poor students is leading to increasingly troubling disparities in education.

 

(Photo: audio luci store via Flickr)  

Published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the survey found that only 3 percent of students in low income families have access to the internet at home through a computer or mobile device; the number rises to 20 percent for middle income children and half for those in higher income families.

According to the report, teachers in urban areas are the least likely to say their students have sufficient access to digital tools in school, compared to rural teachers who are least likely to say their students have sufficient access at home.

The respondents admitted that this growing disparity in access is leading to a gap in performance, with over half saying that "today's digital technologies are widening the gap between the most and least academically successful students."

All this is exacerbated, too, by the fact that today's American media firms have bought and paid for our legislators in Congress to give them what they want, too, so if you want access to the internet you have to pay for it, or course, as we know, but worse--much worse--if you want fast internet, you have to pay MORE for that, as well.

This does nothing, clearly, but set a huge and widening chasm between those with money and assets and computers and access to the internet--and everyone else, worst of all the poor, of course, but even the middle class.

As the old saying and song go, "Them what has, gets."



The next time someone says the poor are just lazy, I may hit them.

Isn't Capitalism wonderful?