▶ Your Answer : Undoubtedly, Internet plays a significant role in people’s daily lives in many of the places where they work or play. Some people think that Internet service should be provided by the government free of charge, while others think people should have to pay for Internet service. Both sides may have their own reasons to support their views. If I had to choose one, I would say that the government should provide Internet service for free. There are several reasons as follows. To begin with, government funding for the free Internet service will contribute to narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. With the spread of the Internet, more job positions can be created. This trend is likely to save people from poverty, ultimately contributing to the overall national economic growth. For example, in the 1970s, with growth in information technology, the government began to invest billions of dollars in the free Internet access. Eventually, this investment was able to help Japan decrease poverty rate as well as unemployment rate. The most contributing factor was that the new job sectors gave more people opportunities to work and opportunities to earn income for their household. People can have easy access to the Internet for free thanks to government funding. In other words, people with little or no income emerged as the new middle class, which played a significant role in promoting the overall GDP. This implies that employment within these business sectors has brought prosperity to people. Without the effort to provide Internet service for free, the economy would have been much worse off. Moreover, when government do not spend their money on the free Internet access, it can lead to citizens’ complaints. Government money is composed of citizens’ taxes, which means that they must have a say on how it is used. If citizens start to think that money is spent on less important matters, they are likely to lose trust in the government. To be specific, in 2002, the Japanese government announced that it would decrease its funds on Internet service and increase its usage on space travel. Many people around the country started to protest against this new policy, with activists rallying in front of City Halls. They demonstrated to persuade the government to reconsider the allocation of its funding on the grounds that this policy is not one of their priorities. All things considered, I firmly believe that the advantages of government spending on their money in Internet service for free far outweigh its disadvantages. All in all, the importance of Internet service cannot be overestimated in life. |