³ÉÈËXÕ¾

SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Durkan wants you to pay for low-income families to have free internet

Mar 5, 2019, 1:52 PM

internet...

(Mingret/FreeImages)

(Mingret/FreeImages)

According to a MyNorthwest story, a new study from the City of Seattle revealed that 95 percent of households have internet access in the home. But people living in low-income communities are five to seven times more likely than the average citizen to not have internet access.

Jenny Durkan says that this is a “race and social justice issue.” According to her, the City of Seattle should spend a fortune in tax dollars to lead the way in “digital inclusion.” She wants the taxpayers to fund everyone’s internet access.

Why? It’s because the government needs to take care of everybody, and that will raise people’s self-esteem, and then they’ll be at the same level as everyone else.

The 1960s/1970s version of no internet access was when every single one of my friends growing up had a color TV. I loved going to my friends’ houses to watch their color TV. All we had was a 19-inch black-and-white TV. It was awful. What was the solution? Should the government have bought us a color TV?

No. The solution, as I figured out many years later, was that if I wanted something, I had to go work for it. So I started working at age 12 at Foodtown in Sunset Hill. And I’ve had a job ever since then, because I knew that it was the only way I was going to get the stuff that I wanted.

RELATED: Freeloading ‘Participation trophy’ culture leads to lower life expectancy because people can’t handle life

Do you know what we should do to all the families that don’t have internet access? We should tell them to get part-time jobs. There are lots of part-time jobs out there; it’s a great economy for job-seekers. Working 20 hours a week at fast food in Seattle will get you $15 an hour, or $1,000 a month take-home.

If your full-time job doesn’t let you get internet, then get a part-time job on top of it. If your kids want internet and they’re old enough to work, let them find a 20-hour job at a store or restaurant. But instead, the government is taxing other people to get you internet.

Want another solution? Go to the library. There is free internet for everyone at the library. I give a couple hundred bucks a year to the library in my property taxes.

What we’re seeing is a nanny state. The government is making sure it enhances your self-esteem, is teaching you in pre-K that gender is fluid and that the Earth will end in 12 years if your parents drive a pickup truck, and if you don’t have internet, well, the government will tax someone else to get it for you. The government will take care of your every need.

No. That system does not work. We’ve got to start empowering our kids. We’ve got to teach them the merits and the nobility of working for what you want and achieving it yourself.

We are going in the wrong direction, whether we’re talking about drugs on the streets of Seattle or free internet for all. The more government has decided that it will make everything bubble-wrapped for us, the more we can’t cope when it’s time to go out in the world on our own.

Free Geek employee Ashley Martinez points to the screen while helping John Castro during a keyboard...

Associated Press

The Digital Equity Act tried to close the digital divide. Trump calls it racist and acts to end it

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people get back online after Hurricane Helene washed away computers and phones in western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, how to navigate in an increasingly digital world. It […]

18 minutes ago

FILE - U.S. Army soldiers cross a floating bridge on the Imjin River during a joint river-crossing ...

Associated Press

The US military spent $6 billion in the past 3 years to recruit and retain troops

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military spent more than $6 billion over the past three years to recruit and retain service members, in what has been a growing campaign to counter enlistment shortfalls. The financial incentives to reenlist in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines increased dramatically from 2022 through last year, with the […]

23 minutes ago

Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives for his first weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The...

Associated Press

Can Pope Leo remain a U.S. citizen now that he’s a foreign head of state?

Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first U.S.-born leader of the Catholic Church elevated him to the extremely rare, and legally thorny, position of being an American citizen who now is also a foreign head of state. Born in Chicago as Robert Prevost in 1955, the new pope for the past decade has held dual […]

44 minutes ago

Ned and Hercules are seen Thursday, May 15, 2025, at West Virginia International Yeager Airport, wh...

Associated Press

Meet Hercules and Ned, the border collies fending off wildlife at West Virginia’s busiest airport

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Hercules and Ned have quite the spacious office at West Virginia’s busiest airport. The border collies and their handler make daily patrols along the milelong airfield to ensure birds and other wildlife stay away from planes and keep passengers and crew safe. Hercules is also the chief ambassador, soaking in affection […]

8 hours ago

FILE - The sun shines above a mural honoring George Floyd in Houston's Third Ward on Sunday, June 7...

Associated Press

Cities tied to George Floyd mark the 5th anniversary of his death

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Religious services, concerts and vigils are set to mark Sunday’s fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer even as police reform and civil rights activists face what they see as a backlash from the Trump administration. Events in Minneapolis center around George Floyd Square, the intersection where police […]

8 hours ago

In this photo provided by Marisa Marulli a veterinary team conducts a CAT scan on a sea turtle name...

Associated Press

A 302-pound loggerhead sea turtle hit by a boat gets an oversize CT scan, with a surprise

JUNO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A massive loggerhead sea turtle hit by a boat off Florida’s Atlantic coast arrived at a turtle hospital needing medical care, but at 302 pounds (137 kilograms), Pennywise was too large to fit their equipment. So the veterinary team at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach took her to […]

8 hours ago

Dori: Durkan wants you to pay for low-income families to have free internet