“U.S. Internet speed better but still lags”

       This article tries to draw a connection between a countries internet speeds and its economic growth.  In my opinion this article was not very persuasive and did not have many facts.  The article says, “Studies repeatedly link faster Internet connections to improved economic development and education outcomes,” but does not give any details from there.  A statistic showing the United States’ internet speeds are shown, but no facts showing where our education or economic levels are given.  I believe the author omits these facts because there is only a weak correlation between internet speeds and economic growth.

            One useful statistic the article gives is, “A 2011 report concluded that doubling broadband speeds can increase a nation's gross domestic product by 0.3 percent. That would add up to $126 billion in the United States, noted the paper by networking equipment company Ericsson, consulting firm Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.” This shows a possible correlation between internet speeds and gross domestic product even if it is only 0.3 percent.  I know that 0.3 percent would lead to a large amount of money gained, but it is such a small percent that it could be due to other factors. Even the useful statistics in this article could be shown to be hollow easily.

            The idea behind the article however is an interesting one and could be plausible.  A faster internet connection could, in principle lead to a higher education level.  This is a little bit of a stretch, but it might be possible to show a direct correlation between the two.  The next part is where it gets a little muddled.  The question is, does a higher education level lead to a higher gross domestic product?  I don’t believe you can prove this with a direct correlation.  While a higher level of education would lead to smarter business decisions, there would still be companies and people who invest in things that are high risk high reward and could possibly fail.  Also if everyone had a college degree there would be even more people fighting for the same amount of jobs. (It’s nice being an engineer because you are fighting with a more limited amount of people that if you were in the business field)  I don’t believe that there is a connection between education level and gross domestic product.

            This article brings up a few good points but does not use enough statistics to back them up.  It is plausible to draw a connection between faster internet and a higher level of education.  However, I don’t think it is possible to draw a connection between higher education levels and a higher gross domestic product.  I was not persuaded by this article to believe that a connection between faster internet and economic levels was anything more than a coincidence.