Government, So Five Years Ago! | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty

Government, So Five Years Ago! | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty: "Being able to connect your laptop to the Internet wirelessly on a citywide or even regional basis was the wave of the future – five years ago. All you needed was a $4 million investment and a private partner. If ever there were a surefire “shovel ready” infrastructure project that our elected officials believed could extend into the foreseeable future, this was it. The problem is, the future is very hard to foresee.

In this case, the project lasted two years. Then everyone starting buying iPhones and iPads and Droids and – poof! – all of a sudden you don’t need a laptop anymore to access the New York Times or email or Facebook. The superfluous Wi-Fi devices today have zero scrap value."