* Utopian claims need to be tempered.

Universal service alone will not guarantee a more democratic society, economically or politically. In "Universal Service Policies as Wealth Redistribution," Milton L. Mueller points out that, broadly speaking, economic growth and telecommunications growth are mutually causative. If infrastructure expansion does not keep pace, then economic growth and wealth creation will stagnate. However, insuring access to that infrastructure will not significantly affect the pattern of uneven wealth distribution in this country, the underlying cause of the divide in the first place.

          The stakes for democracy are even more problematic. While the Web allows everyone a voice, not everyone will choose to participate. More likely, as usage patterns already show, the Web will be used primarily for its entertainment value. In like manner, the democratizing possibilities of television were once heralded, but that promise has gone unfulfilled. Television news shows ratings as well as newspaper subscriptions have been dropping for years, and control of those media has steadily consolidated into the hands of international conglomerates, not local communities. Simple access to the infrastructure will not be enough to disrupt the mechanisms of capitalism; nor will it insure home use, much less certain kinds of home use.

          Even if Internet access to the infrastructure is assured, low income households may not be able to keep up with usage-related costs,

Overview Pro-Public Policy Position Insights from Free Market Position    * The definition is a moving target    * Haves/have-nots is a false binary    * Emergent technologies diffuse unevenly    * Is the divide closing? Table of Contents

including access to certain content, and government support for such costs flies in the face of historical precedent with other media. For example, cross-subsidies (i.e., charging businesses and cities more for services than the charges in rural areas to level out the cost/price differential), have insured most U.S. households a dial tone but have not insured access to 900 services for horoscopes; public funds have paid for books at the public library, but not books at home; and postal rates are lower for delivering magazines, but tax money is not used to lower subscription rates per se.