Spurred by the recent Google-Verizon friendship, Minnesota Public Radio asked folks to chime in on that question:

Is it time to change the way we pay for the internet?

The answers are interesting and varied. Some are very astute. Here’s just a glimpse of the comments… (They are in order presented and I’m trying to grab a good sample – not promote these ideals. In fact at least one comment made me growl.)

• How much more could they possibly charge?
• Yes, access to it should be free to all. Just like materials in the library.
• Without Network Neutrality and flat fees for unlimited data, we risk losing humanity’s greatest potential technology to corporations who only want us to consume their information
• I just wish I could something more than dial up where I live.
• When the free market is working, government shouldn’t meddle. When the market runs rough-shod over ordinary folks, government should step in.
• You know, if we were in Finland, we would all have a 1 Mb/s broadband connection with an attempt to give everybody a 100 Mb/s connection by 2015 as a legal right.