(Hi, Bleeding Heartland community! As the FCC is about to issue a long-awaited ruling on the regulation of high-speed internet, broadband expansion will be a critical issue for Iowa state legislators in the coming session. The following diary was originally posted at ProgressiveStates.org. Please leave any thoughts in the comments below!)

A middle-school student needs to do her homework: she needs the internet.

A small business owner needs to purchase supplies for his inventory: he needs the internet.

A recently laid-off head of a household needs to file for unemployment benefits: he needs the internet.

And they just don’t need the internet. They need high-speed internet, otherwise known as broadband.

Dial-up access may have been sufficient for a 20th-century economy. But as our nation becomes more and more reliant on the internet in everyday life, dial-up doesn’t allow a middle-school student to download museum files from her rural home in Arkansas, a small business owner to purchase needed supplies from a vendor, or a father who was just laid-off to apply easily for unemployment benefits to feed his family.

Still think that broadband is a luxury? Think again. Broadband is the infrastructure needed for our nation’s economic survival.