Welcome to the DC — and Democrats’ fake “Infrastructure” Week. Where they are looking to spend upwards of $5.4 trillion on what they are calling “infrastructure” — but which has very little to do with actual infrastructure.
Meanwhile, in the private sector….
It is becoming clear that our Fifth Generation (5G) cellular technology infrastructure is going to rocket wireless into the dominant best way to connect to the Web.
The download and upload speeds on the new wireless network are going to approach 1 Gigabit per second. This is approaching 20 times faster than today’s current speeds.
5G’s capabilities will deliver us the ever-expanding Internet of Things:
“(P)hysical objects (or groups of such objects), that are embedded with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies, and that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks.”
All of which will do more than a little for our economy:
“5G has the potential to create or transform up to 16 million jobs across all sectors of the economy, which includes full-time, part-time and temporary jobs.
“U.S. economy will drive up to $2.7 trillion in additional gross output (sales) growth.
“5G will add up to $1.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP, larger than the annual GDP of 94% of world economies.
“Multiplier effects will be felt in every industry. For example, every job created by 5G within the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector will create an estimated 1.8 additional jobs* for a total of up to 2.8 total jobs throughout the economy.”
This isn’t “green energy.” Where government money is spent to hire people to make and install mass-government-money-subsidized “green energy” sources — to make very little, very expensive energy that we can’t mass-deliver and only works some of the time.
This is real economic activity. Driven by private investment — resulting in real successes and real growth.
Oh, and unlike “green energy,” 5G is actually good for the environment:
“5G technology enables any connected power-using device to sense and respond intelligently to demand or other changes, this has profound implications for energy use.
“As such energy used by manufacturing, agriculture, public transport, public services and ICT networks themselves can be significantly reduced. Similarly, a responsive grid will provide energy as and when it’s needed, and 5G-equipped householders will be able to manage their own energy use, thereby reducing resources used.”
The US has dominated every new generation of wireless network (2G, 3G, 4G). And looking back on it, it’s precisely because government has been relatively uninvolved in its birth, development, and evolution.
Luckily for 5G, government has bizarrely never considered wireless to be an Internet connection. It’s completely disingenuous and ridiculous to exclude wireless — but it has also been helpful. It has rendered wireless partially immune from government’s efforts to “help” people connect to the Web.
Government has wasted decades and hundreds of billions of dollars futzing around in the wired Internet sector. And are this week looking to do so yet again.
Government being the largest male cow in the history of china shops — it has made things there very much worse.
Wireless has thankfully largely been spared from this government “help.”
Now don’t get me wrong — no one is immune to government and its endless futzing.
The Biggest Impediment to Better Internet? Local Governments
The Deep State Is Imposing Many Impediments to 5G Wireless – and China Loves It
DoD 5G: Want to Lose to China in Something? Have Government Do It
But as is always the case, not having Sauron’s eye on you quite so much is a really good thing.
This relatively-less-government situation is largely why the US has been the first globally to deliver each new wireless generation. Which is very important — for reasons far more than just economic. Speaking of the Communists of China….
Who Do You Want Setting Up the Next Internet? The United States – or China?:
“(T)he way the world works is: The country that gets first to 5G – gets to make the worldwide rules for 5G. The US arrived first at 4G – so we set the standards for the planet.
“Setting the rules for 5G – is even, exponentially more important. Because of how all-encompassing 5G will be. And it’s a two nation race.
“’The 5G Race: China and US Battle to Control World’s Fastest Wireless Internet’
“So it’s either Gandalf – or Sauron. I can’t imagine too many people on the planet (not on China’s massive payroll) think totalitarian, censorious China winning the race to run the Web is a very good thing.”
Now, to beat China to the punch bowl, we actually need some authentic government assistance. In most cases, to clean up messes government previously made.
This being fake “Infrastructure” Week, we thought we’d highlight some real infrastructure in which government absolutely should engage.
Actual Modern Infrastructure Problem: A Lack of Domestic Semiconductor Production
Decades of idiotic government policy drove out of the country the manufacture of semiconductors (and everything else). Government must help bring it back.
Decades of government screwing up trade policy allowed China’s Huawei to mass-subsidize its way into Internet network hardware global dominance. Government must assist with undoing this — with this:
5G’s New Twist: Build with Software Instead of Hardware:
“(P)olicymakers and industry are promoting a new, software-driven approach to build next-generation cellular networks without using Chinese equipment.
“Why it matters: It’s a tall order to replace the wireless ecosystem’s hardware-powered status quo, but designing 5G more around software could make it cheaper and easier to deploy — and give hawks a way to lock out China’s products.”
And, of course, 5G requires wireless spectrum. Which is a finite resource — and some spectrum is better than other spectrum. And government owns a whole lot of the good stuff. So government needs to clear off of it and sell it to the private sector.
Unfortunately, the Joe Biden Administration has been backsliding more than a little. In addition to paying little attention to many of these real infrastructure necessities, they have been aiding and abetting the 5G enemy.
Republican Lawmakers Raise Security, Privacy Concerns Over Huawei Cloud Services
Biden Administration Jeopardizes US National Security By Buying Chinese Surveillance Drones
All of this Biden-China activity? Is antithetical to minimizing China’s role in 5G — and everything else. Because EVERY Chinese company is a Chinese government company. Every dollar we give them is a dollar they use to buy more rope to hang us. In 5G — and everything else. Now, and going forward….
So….
We should be incorporating a “Much Less China in America” policy. In 5G — and everything else.
By increasing real American infrastructure. In 5G — and everything else.
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