SF>    Well there is not much of the farm left to sell.  We can all say in
SF>    future years that those were the assets which the taxpayers use to

And generally the money would have been better spent paying off debt
too, all that time.  Government ownership generally sux.

SF>    own.  Of course when private enterprise gets in you can forget about
SF>    the service continuing if it's uneconomic.  Feel sorry for the rural
SF>    people.  

If you feel sorry for the rural people, feel free to lobby the
government to put up taxes on city people so that we can pay the
country people so that they have more money to spend on phones.
Just keep that WELL DISTINCT from the normal economics of a 
business.  It's not Telecom's job to run a charity, it's the
governments.  

Of course, I would prefer to see country people to not get
government funding of cheap telephones, nor see Telecom do it.
They should put up the price of their bananas or whatever they
are selling, to cover the cost of things like telephones.  And 
if they can't cost-justify it themselves, then they shouldn't be
in that business in the first place, and instead of sitting around
on million dollar properties whinging about how poor they are, they
should sell up and let someone who knows how to run a farm properly
take over.

BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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