The World's Stupidest Investment Idea

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi writes (sadly) in the opinion section of the Wall Street Journal on the importance of R & D funding.

The president has proposed no new federal investment in broadband access, but Democrats believe that high-speed, always-on broadband will create millions of good jobs. Our agenda guarantees that every American will have affordable access to broadband -- within five years.

With all the budget demands we have, and given the fact that you can get DSL in most areas for less than $20 a month as it is, is spending taxpayers dollars to subsidize people downloading porn really that much of a priority? Let's not forget that one of the major factors in the 2000-2002 economic slowdown was overinvestment in broadband capacity in the telecommunications sector.