The Digital Divide and The Economic Statement

Prior to this week having a T1 fiber-optic internet connection was a bonus in my mind: practical, useful, and very enjoyable, but not necessary, especially not at $79.54/month. My husband and I are both dedicated gamers and social media users, and not having an internet connection was out of the picture, so the only other alternative was a weaker connection for slightly more each month. You see, we only have two providers in our area, one of which wasn't available to us until about a year ago when they made fiber-optic connections available to apartment buildings. So I'm left wondering about the spotty internet service we used to have from the other company in town, that left us often without internet for hours or days at a time, and could sometimes affect large areas of homes and businesses in our community. 

The interview we watched with Susan Crawford this week reminds me of the Occupy movements, and while the 99% / 1% ratio isn't spot on, the message expands to include even internet access as a basic necessity. While there are locations, libraries especially, that offer public computers and internet access, there is definitely a monopoly as Crawford addresses it, in the connectivity services offered.

I'm struck though by what the ELCA economic statement talks about in terms of addressing poverty and it leads me to think about our own church policies. We have funds set aside for community assistance for families that are struggling to pay bills for specific reasons, and one of the criteria is that they are paying only the basic of necessities with these funds, and that they have redirected any unnecessary spending to these necessities first. Needless to say, internet is a luxury in these situations and understandably so, but if the monopoly didn't exist, and internet could be provided at reasonable cost, then this could easily become a way to even further level the playing field for the community.

The economic statement says, 

We call for:

• policies that promote stable families, strong schools, and safe neighborhoods;
• addressing the barriers individuals face in preparing for and sustaining a livelihood (such as lack of education, transportation, child care, and health care).

By calling us to address "barriers," we should be apt to start talking about this digital divide in our community and even more largely, across the nation. Even further then, we should strive to include computer and job training education to our congregations and communities if these types of courses aren't already in place.