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Africans Are Turning to Starlink

economist.com

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Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#221

Post by dreambuffer »

mothballed wrote: post #219
dreambuffer wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you guys ever acknowledge that the law is an attempt to correct the racism of the apartheid government by distributing economic opportunities to those who never had them?

Economic opportunity isnt zero sum. The 'opportunity' the ANC is 'redistributing' is neglect and mismanagement of infrastructure. Kneecapping starlink doesn't do anything for blacks.

Economic opportunity for black south africans is close to zero sum when all the profit goes to a foreign entity and white south africans.

Separately, kneecapping starlink does a lot for our country by preventing a man who hates us from abusing our laws and spying on our citizens.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#222

Post by cactusplant7374 »

llbbdd wrote: post #89
cactusplant7374 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> take full advantage of the wealth of knowledge provided by the internet Seems like a bit of a stretch in modern times. Do you have any idea what percentage of traffic is TikTok/YouTube/Facebook?

All places laden with useful information.

That the average person doesn't consume. Yes, that is true.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#223

Post by mothballed »

dreambuffer wrote: post #221
mothballed wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economic opportunity isnt zero sum. The 'opportunity' the ANC is 'redistributing' is neglect and mismanagement of infrastructure. Kneecapping starlink doesn't do anything for blacks.

Economic opportunity for black south africans is close to zero sum when all the profit goes to a foreign entity and white south africans. Separately, kneecapping starlink does a lot for our country by preventing a man who hates us from abusing our laws and spying on our citizens.

I might suggest a basic course in economics. The fact someone else gets all the profit of the price paid for a service doesn't mean you dont also gain from what you received.

This is the problem of looking at intent in law. Plenty of racist law had the intent to improve the country. But is in fact often economically illiterate for helping the populace.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#224

Post by dreambuffer »

mothballed wrote: post #223
dreambuffer wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economic opportunity for black south africans is close to zero sum when all the profit goes to a foreign entity and white south africans. Separately, kneecapping starlink does a lot for our country by preventing a man who hates us from abusing our laws and spying on our citizens.

I might suggest a basic course in economics. The fact someone else gets all the profit of the price paid for a service doesn't mean you dont also gain from what you received. This is the problem of looking at intent in law. Plenty of racist law had the intent to improve the country. But is in fact often economically illiterate for helping the populace.

Again, I never said it was zero sum, but thanks for being condescending. I said it was close to zero sum. Black south africans may get some jobs, maybe some internet, but the profit entirely goes to foreign entities and white south africans (in a theoretical model).

The law's intent was never to be racist, and while outcomes vary, the effect does not actually harm white south africans on average. So both the intent and the effect is non-racist.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#225

Post by mothballed »

dreambuffer wrote: post #224
mothballed wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might suggest a basic course in economics. The fact someone else gets all the profit of the price paid for a service doesn't mean you dont also gain from what you received. This is the problem of looking at intent in law. Plenty of racist law had the intent to improve the country. But is in fact often economically illiterate for helping the populace.

Again, I never said it was zero sum, but thanks for being condescending. I said it was close to zero sum. Black south africans may get some jobs, maybe some internet, but the profit entirely goes to foreign entities and white south africans (in a theoretical model). The law's intent was never to be racist, and while outcomes vary, the effect does not actually harm white south africans on average. So both the intent a…

OK so it might be positive sum for blacks if South Africans buy internet from South African Musk (even if Musk vacuums the price as profit) but we can't have that because Musk 'hates' them in your estimation and you've decided individual black people can't decide what that they think about that for themselves even if they might be better off?

But the law criticized had nothing to do with hate or spying, so really you've done something sly and shifted the posts once we called bullshit as an out for a clearly illiterate policy.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#226

Post by bookofjoe »

jcims wrote: post #33
LorenDB wrote: post #4

I live in rural America. The story is quite similar here. My options were (a) cellular hotspot, which is slow and expensive, or (b) satellite internet, which is also slow and expensive. Despite government programs, there are no cable/fiber/DSL options in my area. Starlink fills the gap nicely; it's not blazingly fast, but pretty much meets FCC broadband definitions for $55/mo.

It’s also surprisingly reliable given the physics of it all. I built a house out in the country in 2007 and 10Mbps DSL was all that was available for terrestrial connectivity up until literally yesterday. The DSL would go down for hours a couple of times per month. I got on an early starlink pilot program and had a dish up in early 2021. Aside from momentary blips on the leading edge of a stormfront and occasional ne…

This reminds me of Steve Wozniak's nightmarish prolonged battle to be allowed to personally pay for broadband to his just purchased house.

>Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak: I don't have broadband at home [2012]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/us-news-blog/2012/may...

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#227

Post by consensus1 »

dreambuffer wrote: post #218
modeless wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Requiring SpaceX to set up a token reseller just to meet the the ownership requirement does exactly nothing for "national security". It's pure graft for whoever gets handed ownership of the reseller and nothing more. In fact if blatant enough it could be illegal under the FCPA.

It hedges national security risk by having 30% of the profits stay within South Africa, so that if the foreign company decides to use their company to, say, spy on South Africans, they at least have to fund our key industries to do so. That is why B-BBEE applies to Telecomms and other key industries.

It hedges national security risk by saying "well, there's a national security risk here, and we really can't do anything about that, but we can make them pay us off for taking that risk"? You're really stretching on this one.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#228

Post by Leonard_of_Q »

zuzululu wrote: post #190
dmix wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ontario ended a $100M contract with Starlink to help connect 15k rural and first nations households because Elon was connected with the US administration when tariffs were announced https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/starlink-deal-void-on... AFAIK there has been no replacement contract since it was killed in 2025

There is no replacement because the pockets of Canada's political inner circle hasn't be lined yet with someone that can match Starlink I think that a more expensive and crappier version of Starlink is going to be offered to Canadians , looking at how its run as an outsider.

Carney seems to flirt with China [1] so they might make him an offer he can't refuse.

[1] https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2026/01/16/prime-...

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#229

Post by watwut »

nbardy wrote: post #187
rapind wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon has total control of Starlink and he’s currently enjoying his bond villain phase. I am very happy my tax dollars are not going into his pockets. It’s not a crusade. You send him your money if you want. It’s none of my business. Pretty sure they are doing a bunch of AI training with your data now too. Opt-in by default. So yeah, no thanks.

[flagged]

Trying and helping to incense violence surely counts. He is one of the most harmfull men in the west. It is tight competition, sure, but he is there among the worst.

Backing fascist parties actually do make you a villan, regardless of whether they win or not.

Re: Africans Are Turning to Starlink

#230

Post by watwut »

zuzululu wrote: post #189
leonidasrup wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk is quite cotroversial figure for Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk_salute_controversy On one hand Elon Musk and JD Vance supported far-right German party AfD, a party with strong links to Russian. On the other hand Starlink helps Ukraine in the fight against Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfD_pro-Russia_movement https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2025/02/24/germany-...

[flagged]

> I personally don't care much about politics

Yeah, I dont care about politics, therefore conservatives cant be fascist. I dont care the label fits perfectly, I dont care they have similar goals and values.

Important is, important is not to call them that.

> I think you should be aware of how this looks when you keep parroting unsubstantiated talking points from the opposition party.

They are well substantiated at this point. What is unsubstantiated is knee jerk "their opposition must be wrong, I dont care what is going on".

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