Social and Economic Technology - 4.5. Promotional Descriptions
How much should Secotek cost the user?
The plan of Secotek is to revive the village economy. This inherently means it is aimed to enable users far more wealth than they currently can, and if the system works the cost is clearly negative. The principle aim is to enable villagers, especially the young, to have a practical working and social life without the crippling necessity of individually owning a reasonably reliable car, thus saving them an annual cost that at at preset runs into thousands of pounds, and look sets to rise.
The easiest situation to directly cost is the hermit countryside farmer looking for work because his farm is not paying. He will directly need to purchase Secotek equipment. The cost of suitable equipment should be in the order of two hundred British pounds. He will also need, in practice, an ISDN communications package equivalent to "Home Highway" with unmetered access to the Internet instead of his telephone which he probably already owns. At present this costs around 50 pounds to install plus around 45 pounds per month, (minus present telephone arrangements) but it is believed this is set to fall.
However, the general principle is that Secotek exists in a village centre, or "Telecottage", which if all the plan goes through will accommodate both the village workers and children. It will obviously extend to shops, catering facilities etc. Yes, the village shop will return. Only probably not in competition to but in conjunction with the large supermarket chains. (Even they realize present move to "home delivery" over great distances needs adjustment, they actually need the village distribution centre! Food distribution is poised to turn full circle.) The costs of providing suitable accommodation for village activities will dwarf the technical equipment costs of Secotek. The money villagers presently sink into an idle village hall as a symbol for a lost cause will at last be put to good use! Offset against Telecottage costs will be the transportation budget of children and the transport costs of the adults to get to work. Also the fact that those people will not need the (admittedly lower cost) facilities in a more centralized placed must not be ignored.
It should be made plain that to enable many of the cost savings to be directly realized and to enable villages to function in this way requires many actions on the part of government. This is why it can only be lead by government as a public services. Secotek is as much a positive political desire to revive rural economy as it is any piece of electronic equipment. It is not possible to cost what is planned to be an economic revival.
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