I was over at Martin Varsavsky’s blog reading a post titled “Who has the richest poor people in the world?”
Mr. Varsavsky is a major league entrepreneur, who is worth listening to. See the end of the post for his bio.

Why I too look at the wealth of the poor compared to the rich of an area or nation, I agree with with Martin’s premise,
“Because if the poor are not doing that badly then the rest are all doing better.” I think the numbers give a bigger clue on the health of the middle class and how hard of a jump it is going from from poverty to the middle class.

Martin pointed out the World Bank keeps the closest stats to this assertion. Their analysis shows the percentage of national income that the poorest 20% of the population have and proves what many believe, that the USA maybe the best developed country in which to be rich but it is also one of the worst in which to be poor. In general Europe and Japan have the richest poor people in the world.

Martin, as an entrepreneur, cares because the countries with the richest poor are likely going to be the countries with the highest Internet penetration among all the richest countries and therefore the best for Fon - his newest company.

I am also an entrepeneur and I care about this issue because the area I’m living has a small urban core surrounded by a large rural area-most of which can be called poor. (23 rural Washington state counties are classified as economically depressed) After all nobody can view Dry Side Stories without Internet accces. In the parts of the area, businesses are closing and people can greatly benefit from services like what the FON project povides. I have personally have a Fon access point running and have thought about ways to bring WiFi via Fon to more areas of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.

But providing Internet service to thinly populated areas has not been an easy task in the past as cable and phone companies bypass small towns because of expensive installation and maintenance costs. As a result, well over 50% percent of Americans still do not have access to broadband. This is why I support legistation to let PUDs (Public Utility Districts) develop telecommunication systems as part of their utility operations. After all 90% of urban dwellers had electricity by the 1930s, while only 10% of rural dwellers did. In 1935 the Rural Electric Administration (REA) was created to bring electricity to rural areas. By 1939 the REA had helped to establish 417 rural electric cooperatives, which served 288,000 households. The actions of the REA encouraged private utilities to electrify the countryside as well. By 1939 rural households with electricity had risen to 25%.

In our area, we are working on facilities and infrastructure to attract companies that will bring new jobs and capital into our community. Spokane has the SpokaneHotZone (Vivato RIP and OneEighty Networks) — a free Wi-Fi network that covers a 100-block area in downtown Spokane. Stevenson, a town of 1,300 people on the Columbia River, set up a free Wi-Fi network in its business district in the fall 2004 as a way to help drive tourism. And Maverick Wireless deployed a Wi-Fi network in 2004 in Benton County that covers 40 square miles, but has monthly service charges as high as $59.95.

The digital divide may become the greatest factor in terms of ones wealth and ability to move up the socio-economic ladder more than any other factor in the coming 20 years. Or in other words, the chance to live the American dream may become directly tied to which side of the digital divide you live on. If you live outside the USA, then call it standard of living.

The phrase “digital divide” initially referred to PC ownership. It was a term used to point out the fact that while computer ownership was generally increasing, this increase was limited to certain ethnic groups with particular economic means in limited geographic areas. As the use of the term evolves, a better definition begins to include those who are more generally cut off from information. A more up-to-date definition would include the idea that lack of access and lack of training are barriers to information wealth- which in turn leads to a greater barrier to gaining or maintaining wealth.

Keeping poor Americans on the right side of the digital divide means that they need access to our country’s technological infrastucture. Havng inexpensive, simple high speed Internet access puts rural communities on a more even footing. Dispersal of knowledge workers to rural areas will help to ease congestion in cities and provide our economy with a much needed boost. Please remember today everyone in America is a knowledge worker to one degree or another.

The business and political leaders who direct the resources to give everyone and every area access to the Internet at usable speed will gain power and influence. Those who don’t, either want to divide America (or the world) into the haves or have nots’ or just lack the vision to be leaders.

Martin’s Bio:
Martin is an Argentine/Spanish entrepreneur, founder of five successful companies in the past 20 years.

In 1984, while still in college, he started his first business, Urban Capital Corporation, a NY-based real estate developer. This was soon followed in 1986 by Medicorp Services, a Canadian biotechnology company, that quickly became a pioneer in AIDS testing. His third business, Viatel Ltd., Martin’s first venture into the world of telecom, was founded in 1991. Jazztel Telecomunicaciones (Jazztel) was founded in 1997 in direct competition with Spain’s Telefonica and Ya.com, launched in 1999, has become Spain’s second largest Internet content company.

His current project is Fon. FON is the largest WiFi community in the World

Because of his outstanding contributions to his country of origin, Varsavsky was awarded the title of Ambassador-at-Large of Argentina from 2001 until 2005.

He is also on the Board of Trustees of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation.

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