Government should force the IT industry to bridge the data divide

With the cost of acquiring appropriate systems being significantly lower, more training facilities could become available to those in need.

The self-evident ramifications of this proposal are that a major portion of the unskilled workforce would certainly be converted to being somewhat skilled, their "useability" to industry would be more appealing and whilst their salaries may not necessarily increase, at least the unemployment rate might become lower which will indirectly affect health care costs and lessen the need for government services. Society per se also wins.

Moves are afoot with these goals in mind. A few PC manufacturers made attempts at bundling the Lotus office productivity package some years ago as a no-cost item in the purchase of a PC. Mr. Linus Torvalds brought on-line the Linux operating system (an offshoot of the Unix operating system) which is becoming increasingly popular, and made it freely available to anyone interested. A significant portion of the tools needed to appear on and surf the world-wide-web (Internet) can be freely downloaded.

A pattern can now be discerned whereby we are lurching haltingly in the right direction but personally, I would prefer our arrival at a better alternative much earlier than later. Continued insistence on self-regulation by those with vested interests is clearly not for the greater good. Interdiction is not only justified but necessary.