>AT&T falsely told the US government that it met its obligation to deploy broadband at more than 133,000 locations in Mississippi, state officials say.
>Since 2015, AT&T has received over $283 million from the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund to expand its network in Mississippi. But the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) said it has evidence that AT&T’s fixed-wireless broadband is not available to all the homes and businesses where AT&T claims it offers service. The PSC asked the FCC to conduct “a complete compliance audit” of AT&T’s claim that it has met its obligation
So it's that we cannot do it, it's that it's more profitable to say it's "difficult" to do it and then lie about getting it done.
>So the health insurance alone doesn't come close to covering the gap.
You're right - I was also including all the other taxes - SS/Medicare/Unemployment/State/city etc. For ex: someone living in NYC, with 150-200k would be paying a total effective rate of about 35% (breakdown of 24% Fed, 6% SS, 1.5% Medicare, 9% NYS + 3% NYC). Add in health insurance of around 6% and you're close to what EU employee would take home.
>You should start that company and guarantee that you will never lay anyone off.
Long term does not mean "never". It just means looking beyond the next quarter and/or hiring based on business needs and not based on hype or a target eps.
>I see that it has a size of about 85.5 thousand square miles (and about 2 million people).
>I've never understood the value in comparing relatively densely populated European countries to America. The practical realities of each just make them quite different in terms of basic utilities and infrastructure.
That's the lie everyone in America likes to tell themselves - it's very easy to provide electricity and phone service to all these people, but somehow internet is not.
>Would you rather they never hire those people? Because that is one option.
Yup, and that way those people should be hired by companies who are in it for the long term and not looking just at the next quarter (and using hiring as a way to deny employees to competitors).
>It did also make me a bit worried about the expected level of driver education...
Not just driver, but of the general population. A few decades ago, the general reading level was at the 6th grade (thanks to the policies of Ronald Regan) and republicans think that is too high and have been working intensely to lower it. Won't be surprised if it's dropped given the "golden" opportunity of covid. I know it's only been a few years (centuries for most Americans) since Betsy DeVos was secretary of education. Remember that era?
About the only "ethical" billionaires (did not exploiting anyone) would be the ones at the end of your list. That would be Taylor Swift, Beyonce, J. K. Rowling, Roger Federer (and no George Lucas is not on that list).
> I guess most software developers are evil.
Not most. Anyone who willingly works for Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok/Advertising/Palantir and other exploitative companies is.
>Anyone who makes silverware is evil. Etc.
Umm, silverware?
>picking on one person (quite poorly), and then trying to generalize that to all billionaires.
Yeah that was my bad - to clarify: anyone who became a billionaire through their own work/talent and without exploiting anyone is an ethical one in my book. Anyone who became one by stealing (yes, "upcoding" medical charges is stealing, unpaid labor is stealing) is not.
> Epic became the dominant vendor of databases because it was better than anyone else at combining regulatory compliance with maximizing hospital income. Epic enables the hospital to maximize the use of codes that determine the payment. “Before Epic, nobody was able to systematize upcoding,” says an executive of one hospital system.
> Epic’s software can enable doctors and hospitals to overcharge patients, insurers, and Medicare and Medicaid.
Edit: so really, "billionaire healthcare company owner" is all you need to know about the ethics of that person.
>By your logic, we can assume that the existence of these lawsuits and payments means that the entire value of the government can be attributed to exploitation.
In the US? most def. I don't even know where to start with all the exploitative practices of the government - Regan's strike busting is a good place to. And don't forget the institutional practices:
> Someone working a job they freely chose is not being exploited.
This article from 2022 has something to say about that:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/22/amazon-wo...
Amazon is right to be worried – its staff turnover rate is astronomical. Before the pandemic, Amazon was losing about 3% of its workforce weekly, or 150% annually. By contrast the annual average turnover in transportation, warehousing and utilities was 49% in 2021 and in retail it was 64.6%, less than half of Amazon’s turnover.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/att-took-283-mil...
>AT&T falsely told the US government that it met its obligation to deploy broadband at more than 133,000 locations in Mississippi, state officials say.
>Since 2015, AT&T has received over $283 million from the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund to expand its network in Mississippi. But the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) said it has evidence that AT&T’s fixed-wireless broadband is not available to all the homes and businesses where AT&T claims it offers service. The PSC asked the FCC to conduct “a complete compliance audit” of AT&T’s claim that it has met its obligation
So it's that we cannot do it, it's that it's more profitable to say it's "difficult" to do it and then lie about getting it done.