Houston Silicon Valley and its fans argue that tech is a tool enabled by the wonderful world of the internet. They aren’t totally wrong, though like all tools, tech and the internet, have to be used correctly of course. We all know that, right? We also are finding out more and more that these tools …
Tag: Internet access
Arkansas Playing Gotcha with the Poor to Cut Them Off of Medicaid
New Orleans In a sordid and shameful episode a few weeks ago Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson pridefully announced that the state had managed to bar 4300 people from health care support through Medicaid because of its new work requirement policies. Seema Verma the head of the federal Center for Medical Services (CMS) who had approved …
Why is it so Hard for Policy Makers to Separate Access from Affordability?
New Orleans Life, work, and the world are full of mysteries, but after years of hitting my head against various walls, I’m finally connecting the dots in trying to understand the peculiar responses we sometimes get in trying to change public policies and private pricing strategies. Remittances are a prime example. Talking last week to …
Magical Realism at the Border of Techies and the Poor
New Orleans Don’t get me wrong, I am 1000% in favor of techies of all stripes and sizes trying to figure out a way to impact on the lives and fortunes of low and moderate income families. Nonetheless, when I read an article about JPMorgan Chase putting up $30 million through its foundation to create …
African Internet Barriers Dropping for Commerce not People
Nairobi My first visit to Nairobi was more than a decade ago. Where I stayed claimed access to the internet on a dial-up modem so slow that each email would take fifteen minutes or more to send, if it didn’t timeout before completion. Doing the least amount after a day of work meant staying up …