I’d like to point out that at a technical level, it’s a lot easier to have net neutrality than to enforce different-speed “lanes” on the internet.

I don’t feel like one of my massive write-ups today, but the resources involved in providing tiered service levels are pretty large, while throwing in some high-end routers and cross-connects are relatively tiny as far as resourcing goes.

In the future, when people sign up for an internet connection, they will probably be offered one with certain options, such as "can access CNN and Netflix,” while the next tier will be “access MSNBC, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and CNN,” etc.

A film starring three women that does not pass the Bechdel Test.

What the fuck. How does this even. I just don’t know.

This post about how absurdly pricy rent is getting in the developed world (especially the US, UK, and Canada) reminded me of talking to a girlfriend’s father years ago about his cost of rent during the 1960s.

He lived in Virginia, if I remember correctly, and said something like, “Back when I was starting out, I could afford my own apartment working part-time at a grocery store. I just played music when I felt like it and worked 20 or 30 hours a week. Kids today can’t do that.”

A rare acknowledgement from someone of the Baby Boomer generation that things are categorically different now for those getting started, and that younger generations are not just lazy or entitled.

But no need to just listen to anecdotes – you can look at the data yourself to see that he is telling the truth. Here is a table of median gross rent divided out by state and decade.

For Virginia in 1960, median rent was $350 per month. (Note that the person I was talking to was probably paying well below median rent as he was single and didn’t/doesn’t care much about ritzy stuff.) But let’s use median rent despite the previous caveat.

The table is in 2000 dollars, so let’s translate that to 2014 dollars. In 2014 dollars, median rent in 1960 Virginia was $480 a month.

The minimum wage in 1960 was $1.00 an hour, which is $8.00 an hour in 2014 dollars.*

So assuming that the person I was talking to averaged 25 hours a week, his gross pay in 1960 (in 2014 dollars) would have been $800 a month. Let’s assume a tax rate of 15% on that income. That leaves $680 a month of net take-home pay.

So yes, a person in 1960 really could have worked part-time at a grocery store for minimum wage and afforded a quite good apartment on their own.

No one, anywhere in the UK, US or Canada, could do that now, or anything close to it.

*Very roughly – constant dollars aren’t really that constant, but that is way too abstruse of a discussion to go into here.

I was saying this was inevitable early as 1996 by the way, but the internet as we’ve know it is now dead.

The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that allow companies like Disney, Google or Netflix to pay Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon for special, faster lanes to send video and other content to their customers.

As usual, the corporations win and everyone else loses.

In reality of course the corporations won’t be paying for faster lanes. They will be paying to not have their connections artificially throttled by various means, which means of course that those who don’t pay up will by default be restricted.

US internet innovation is at an end with this move, but of course that is the way large corporations prefer it. Innovation, after all, is the main threat to them.