This one I know and am totally against. It may sound cruel but would use the same tack we have taken with our children and grandchildren here, and on a lot of things - I'm sorry, you're poor. Poor people don't have cell phones or comprehensive cell phone plans with unlimited calling, etc., new TV's, CD's, designer anything. Your dad and I, (granddad and I), have money, we can afford those things. You want them? Get a job and earn the money, do extra jobs around my house to earn the money, save from your babysitting or grass mowing or whatever job you can come up with and buy it yourself."
So, for all those who have a cell phone that I helped pay for...find a job. Do not turn your nose up at honest work, whether you like that particular job or not. Use the pay phone on the corner or at your local Stop-N-Go to make calls. Until you can afford one on your own, you don't get to have one, period.
You are paying for their free phones
Cognito22
2012/07/07 16:45:29
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Check your phone bill.
See that line that says "Universal service fund"?
That's you paying . . . for free gubment give out of phones.
Top Opinion
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Murph 65 2012/07/07 16:54:22
Give them two tin cans and a string.
even at the worst of times ..
I always scraped enough together to pay my own bills ..
this amount .. and the rest of the 'fees/taxes' are high indeed ...
" Contributions ....
In the past, only long distance companies made contributions to support the federal Universal Service Fund. In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Telecommunications Act that expanded the types of companies contributing to the Universal Service Fund.
Currently, all telecommunications companies that provide service between states, including long distance companies, local telephone companies, wireless telephone companies, paging companies, and payphone providers, are required to contribute to the federal Universal Service Fund. Carriers providing international services also must contribute to the Universal Service Fund. Since an FCC order released in June 2006, providers of VoIP services are obligated to contribute as well.
Telecommunications companies pay contributions into one central fund. The USAC makes payments from this central fund to support the four Universal Service Fund programs. The FCC does not require companies to charge their customers for these contributions - this funding decision is left up to the individual companies.[17] " .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
Yeah, buddy, I'm stupid! I've even announced standing at the boxes that I will not deliver a phone to an incorrect address or name. Word spread very quickly! LOL!
"The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the 1996 Act, are to:
Promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable and affordable rates for all consumers Increase nationwide access to advanced telecommunications services
Advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural, insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas Increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries and rural health care facilities Provide equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs The Commission established four programs to fulfill these goals. They are:
The High-Cost program
The Lifeline (low income) program, including initiatives for Native Americans
The Schools and Libraries program, commonly referred to as E-rate
The Rural Health Care program
These programs are funded by the Universal Service Fund. Telecommunications providers must contribute to the fund through an assessment on their interstate and international revenues. The Commission appointed the Universal Service Administrative Company, or USAC, to administ...
"The goals of Universal Service, as mandated by the 1996 Act, are to:
Promote the availability of quality services at just, reasonable and affordable rates for all consumers Increase nationwide access to advanced telecommunications services
Advance the availability of such services to all consumers, including those in low income, rural, insular, and high cost areas at rates that are reasonably comparable to those charged in urban areas Increase access to telecommunications and advanced services in schools, libraries and rural health care facilities Provide equitable and non-discriminatory contributions from all providers of telecommunications services to the fund supporting universal service programs The Commission established four programs to fulfill these goals. They are:
The High-Cost program
The Lifeline (low income) program, including initiatives for Native Americans
The Schools and Libraries program, commonly referred to as E-rate
The Rural Health Care program
These programs are funded by the Universal Service Fund. Telecommunications providers must contribute to the fund through an assessment on their interstate and international revenues. The Commission appointed the Universal Service Administrative Company, or USAC, to administer the four programs and the Universal Service Fund."
http://transition.fcc.gov/wcb...
250 mins a month
Why free phones? The reasoning is an employer can more easily reach you with a job offer if you have a free government cell phone. You can you stay in touch with your doctor and other emergency medical professionals with a free cell phone. You can report a crime. A free government cell phone can help you keep in touch with family and other loved ones.
No doubt all of that is true, but how many people use their 250 free minutes to contact their drug dealer is another question unanswered.
them get a job.
Hate to be such a skepic......
So, for all those who have a cell phone that I helped pay for...find a job. Do not turn your nose up at honest work, whether you like that particular job or not. Use the pay phone on the corner or at your local Stop-N-Go to make calls. Until you can afford one on your own, you don't get to have one, period.
Sadly, it looks like our government, in its infinite wisdom, is making it harder for kids to earn a buck. Lemonade stands are out. Delivering newspapers has become an adult business and there are fewer and fewer papers to deliver, anyway. It is even hard for kids to compete for lawn mowing with the big landscape companies employing illegal aliens. And you can't get a real job until you are 16 and then minimum wage laws may make it hard for somebody to hire kids unless they are doing it for the goodwill.
You and yours deserve multiple raves as well. The thing about being a soft touch is that we could be soft touches when we wanted to be, and our choice was usually after some greater than expected behavior, grades, something, by our kids. And, yes, you should do charity without expecting anything in return. However, being parents here, our kids quickly learned that if there wasn't some sort of heartfelt thank you attached to whatever gracious benefit we granted them, the benefits became long and far in between. I LOVE THE POWER OF BEING A PARENT. One of the many talks my boys and I had, which they hated, and which I then had with my grandchildren, and they, too, hated it. But wish I could be a fly on a wall someday when little whozit is getting the same chat from his mom or dad - "I'm the parent, I have the power. You want the power, finish school, get a job, get your place to live an...
You and yours deserve multiple raves as well. The thing about being a soft touch is that we could be soft touches when we wanted to be, and our choice was usually after some greater than expected behavior, grades, something, by our kids. And, yes, you should do charity without expecting anything in return. However, being parents here, our kids quickly learned that if there wasn't some sort of heartfelt thank you attached to whatever gracious benefit we granted them, the benefits became long and far in between. I LOVE THE POWER OF BEING A PARENT. One of the many talks my boys and I had, which they hated, and which I then had with my grandchildren, and they, too, hated it. But wish I could be a fly on a wall someday when little whozit is getting the same chat from his mom or dad - "I'm the parent, I have the power. You want the power, finish school, get a job, get your place to live and go be as powerful as you wish." It was fun, can't help it, it was.
I can't think of much, if anything, that the government sticks its nose in that does not become worse rapidly. I think most problems would just work themselves out some way, some how by we out here in the hinterlands dealing with them as opposed to those in DC. However, those in DC have to keep sticking their noses in to warrant our sending them to DC and their being able to stay for 10 or 11 months out of a year in DC. TERM LIMITS, term limits - time to get back to "gentlemen farmer" type politicians, come for a while and then go home and work and live with what you have wrought.
Sorry, I got a bit on the verbose side today.