Think of the cost. Or the productivity lost. There are people on this August forum who would charge out at £1000 a day or more. If you have a journey of 2 hours there and 2 hours back that's a productivity cost, assuming they can work digitally, of £500. Multiply that through the one or two people doing that kind of journey daily and you build a strong case for making the investment in addressing the problem.
This assumes that the people charging out at £1000 a day are contributing that sort of value to whomever you think should foot the bill for this super-wifi. My gut feel is that if the people charging out at £1000 a day want to all get together and pay for some fancy new dongles on the roof of every rail carriage then they are welcome to do so. The average taxpayer, on the other hand, is probably best served if those cunts are offline for as long as possible.
Interesting to see that now he’s leaving his post as leader and no longer has to pander to Tory extremists, Sunak adopts a sane, reasoned and collaborative tone at PMQs. He sounds surprisingly reasonable and the sort of person who would make a decent leader of the opposition. What a pity he didn’t have the bollocks to do this over the past few years.
yes it is an assumption which is why I assumed it as a point to illustrate an over arching point rather than presenting it as a detailed study. If there is an expectation of stumping up for what might be considered a standard utility in another country then my high value ass is looking at being productive in that other country that has sensible resources.
I think that you are clearly, and wilfully, not seeing the argument.
I believe that what is being said is that it's not the responsibility of private infrastructure companies to provide competent coherent infrastructure. And of course that's true, they are there to rinse the public purse and individuals within society, with the highest possible demand pricing coupled with subsidies. Not to provide a service. It is completely unreasonable to expect them to do anything other than stiffle innovation and productivity - they don't want elevated expectations to require investment over dividends to all of their lovely foreign shareholders. So you can expect that they will trot out all the old cliches about the cost of everything, and the value of nothing. In much the same way that their argument will soon spread to things like cancer sufferers having to club together to buy MRI scanners, because the likes of the rest of us have no use for functional services. Until we do...obviously. Don't expect the great british public* to think this through any time soon....rather expect that affordable housing will disappear because tramps smell, and they should be in jail because of that - not in shelter, and unfortunately we are not allowed to have functional country wide communications at a reasonable cost, because twats like you sometimes wear red braces.
Speaking as someone approximately in that category, it doesn't make much difference to my productivity whether I work on the train or not.
I'm going to do the work I have to do and if I can't work on the train (I don't really like to anyway, as it's uncomfortable), then I'll just have to work later when I get to where I'm going. And I'd guess I'm not unusual in that.
I suspect I spend the most time on trains of anyone on this board. I mostly take the time to watch Netflix or play on my Nintendo Switch. Sometimes with a beer depending on the time of day. Sometimes the journey flies by, sometimes it really drags. As you say though, I tend to write-off the time work-wise. I might turn my laptop on at 8pm when I get home and do a bit then - rather than try to do it between 5-7 on my way home. I guess it would be nice to be able to get it done on the train if there was great wifi. Though I'm not sure I actually would. I think I'd also need to have a first class seat to make it viable. Which I can't afford.
I'm still all for good WiFi on trains. But there are multiple things I'd prioritise over it.
It's not just the cost of productivity to you the individual. It's also the opportunity cost of the lost data exhaust not spaffed out by you while you are data deprived.
If you are not data socially active, you are not producing data for insight into your behaviour, and while you are dangerously having time to think for yourself, you are not being pushed products and propaganda. Globalised data control requires keeping you under pressure. This individual business penny pinching risks a higher state of consciousness in you the consumer victim. At the very least global business should ensure your connectivity in the greater interests of global data fascism.