This “rant” is not about Walmart and it’s mega-invasionary tactics. Similarly, it is not a call to boycott Walmart. I would be a hypocrite if I did that because I shop at Walmart. With my dwindling disposable income, I too find the $8 jeans quite satisfying … and when I have my shirt un-tucked(which is most of the time), there is no telling them from $30+ name brands. For the record, both Walmart and Levi have most of their product manufactured outside the USA so don’t start the “buy American” bit just yet.

No, this “rant” is about the anti-Walmart zellots. This “rant” if for the two faces of our local population (or at least those who have chosen to be very out spoken). There has been all of this press in the local papers about the detriment a Walmart will cause to the local economy. Yet, you drive 35+ miles north into the next state to the nearest Walmart and what do you see ? Virginia license plates everywhere.

So, there is not chance that the local Virginians will boycott a new Walmart in their own backyards when they are already making a 3 hour round trip pilgrimage to get lower prices. Probably, like me, they get the milk, eggs, fresh produce, and sporadic items at the local markets, hardware store, and road side vendors. For everything else, we keep a long list of things we need from Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot, Pet shops, and the like. We then drive 30, 40, 60+ minutes to the “super store mecca” and stock the mud room, the pantry, and the shed – hoping we didn’t forget anything. We return home, unload, and put everything away. And that evening ? … Well, we start the list all over again.

That’s life. Shoot us if you dare. Just remember, most of our trucks have gun racks and the season is always open on some game or fowl … even zellots.

While Steve Jobs announced he would offer a rebate of $100 (apple store credit) for those who paid full price for their iPhone, I would guess that most were not complaining about the steep price just 5 days ago. So, if it was a “good deal” then, what has changed ? Nothing ! If I want the coolest gadget, I know it will be cheaper in a few months. That’s the price of “cool”. At least two people quoted from a CNN.com article are being honest with themselves on why they bought an iPhone …

“It’s better than a dog, if you want to meet people,” Brin said of his iPhone.

“It’s the equivalent of having that season’s handbag,” said Shamama, who goes through cell phones as quickly as some people do shoes.

BTW – I don’t agree with the first quote but it is really funny because 10 years ago I actually knew three guys who got together and bought a puppy just to pick up girls. I felt bad for the dog because it wasn’t clear if it would get the caring home it deserved but one of the guys was a decent bloke so I stayed optimistic. … I never did find out what happened to the dog … or the guys for that matter. It was South Padre Island at spring break so they could be anywhere by now.

In Stephen O’Grady’s post titled “It?s the Network, Not the Application: Online Desktops” he describes an environment where the computer is always connected to internet.

Some day this may be true but it’s not true today – unless you use the internet in a sufficiently limited way that satellite connectivity is productive. For many in the world – and it’s still very true here in the United States – internet connectivity is only achieved over dial-up. This is neither fast enough of cost effective enough to be “always on”. I know many people who are less than 5 miles from high speed internet connectivity but because there is no economy of scale, are not served – some are less than 1 mile away. For them, it is frustrating knowing it is so close and yet it would be literally thousands of dollars to “get connected”.

Obviously, this will change over the next several years but it is slow to change because the internet service provider is a capitalist. I’m not implying this is a bad thing. Rather, I am making a point that “those who have” seem to forget about “those who have not” – even when the members of the first group were very recently members of the second group. … how quickly we forget … <sigh>

The US government has had an initiative to promote rural development by funding development and deployment of high speed internet to the unserved and under served sections of the country. One of the driving goals is to provide the “global economy” to rural families and thereby allowing them to extend their economic opportunities. A large number of rural Americans either live near or below the poverty line. They would rather not give up on their way of life. They have creativity, business sense, time and labor on there side. The rural internet initiative would allow them to supplement the family income or even create whole new incomes if they had a market for their products and skills – the local community and county fairs do not provide enough customers but the internet does.

Unfortunately, the rural internet initiative has been given a failing grade for many years. I don’t have access to the government records but I would guess the failing grades go back beyond the current administration so I would not characterize it as a republican or democrat failure – it’s an American failure.

This is one of those cases where the private sector won’t solve the problem. It’s not in their short term economic interest. It has no pay off within a few fiscal quarters <rassa fraggin’ short sighted fiscal bean counters>. I liken it to the US Highway system. Today it is a great asset to American business but when it was first built, it had to be a government project because it did not have short term economic incentive.

I hope this will change at some point but I am not holding my breath. In the mean time I support our legislators and senators who see the value in getting the internet more distributed. Where possible, I provide my time and knowledge to the efforts. I have no grand illusions. I don’t expect we will have a truly “world wide web” anytime soon. I don’t even expect we will cover major countries anytime soon.

What I believe is there is more to a capitalist society that quarterly earnings reports. There is value in a long term view. There is a balance between profits and profitability. There is creativity, chupzta, knowledge, and sweat equity in a scale most companies only dream of … and it’s out there, just waiting!