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To: Win-Lose-Draw who wrote (35447)	9/3/2010 5:09:30 PM
From: axial	Respond to of 46821

"From my perspective, "essential" cannot be extricated from questions of economic gain, it just allows for a different set of standards." Then perhaps we should try to take it out of the realm of disembodied abstraction, and put it in the context of peoples' ordinary, everyday usage. That is, the majority is no longer sees it as a dispensable luxury, but "essential." They (and commerce, the military, government, etc.) use it for shopping, banking, trading, business, education, and interaction with government (online taxes, government benefits, etc) as well as entertainment and discourse such as this. To me that qualifies as "essential" -- even more essential than telephony was, because it's far more functional. In that context, it simply facilitates the flow of information; in its absence, much vital information would not flow, or would be impeded. Many online transactions would then require actual physical performance - with energy and time penalties. My point: in the presence of such obvious benefits, is the question of economic improvement a show-stopper? Do we really need to prove economic gains when ordinary in-your-face facts are so persuasive? Jim