🚀 go-pugleaf

And the schism between the haves and have nots in this country keeps
getting bigger.

Once upon a time, there was a company called Apple Computer that was going 
to bring the computer to the rest of us. Thousands of Macintoshes were 
donated to schools. A group was formed inside Apple to come up with ways 
to maximize Macintosh usability by handicaped people. Schools in poor 
largely non-white areas were targeted for special help so that the kids 
might someday find work on a more equal footing with their counterparts 
from more financially advantaged areas. A group within Apple became 
concerned by the lack of participation by girls in school computer 
activities. 

In a country where for the last eight years {years of prosparity according 
to our president} the gap between the have nots and the haves have 
widened; Where the average yearly income for a full time employee in 
this country is under $25,000/year; Where more children then ever do not 
live in homes because their parents cannot afford to house them; Apple has 
spent considerable resources trying to bring computer literacy to the 
poor and disadvantaged.

What has this accomplished? Many children from poor families have been 
exposed to computers in schools for a few years and have come to realize 
that with time they may be able to learn enough to free themselves from the 
generations of poverty that spawned them. Do they get a chance to continue 
learning at home or after they pass that sometimes brief window of exposure?

I suspect that all of us who have access to the NET and the know-how
to use it either have or soon anticipate having an income that has
enough disposable income to purchase a computer system. We use our
knowledge of the computer to help provide our income. We bitch about 
Apple raising their prices and many of us go ahead and buy that new
system, grumbling all the way from the bank to the computer store.

But how many more people are there that now can not afford a Macintosh?
{Do you really think that the Plus will be sold much longer?}

What of all the work being done by groups within Apple exposing people to a
dream that they will never be able to afford??

Whatever happened to the dream of the computer for the rest of us? To the
vision of Mac decendants as common in households as a toaster?
When was the last time you saw a Mac being advertized as the computer
for the rest of us? Who are the rest of us?

Has the dream become a tease to those ever increasing numbers of people
who can not afford a Macintosh?

If the dream dies  what of the dreamer?

TeriAnn