menu Home chevron_right
NEWS & CULTURE

We Investigated Starlink. The Corruption We Found Will Shock You.

More Perfect Union | October 3, 2026



The U.S. was supposed to spend $40 billion to build internet in rural America, then Elon Musk got a huge chunk of that money redirected to Starlink.

He made hundreds of millions, while countless people still don’t have good internet.

We went to Louisiana where kids can’t do their homework, schools can’t support their students, and businesses struggle without a reliable connection.

Host & Producer: John Gallen
Editor: Anthony Moscorro
Videographers: Ben Powell, Justin Feltman, & Zhenya Townley
Video Production Manager: Isabel Atalaya
Video Production Coordinator: Jodi Clemens
Video Production Fellow: Astrid Dong
Video Editing Fellow: Daria Nastasia
Supervising Producer: Brady Welch

—–

More Perfect Union is an Emmy-winning, nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to build power for working people. Here’s what that means: We report on the real struggles and challenges of the working class from a working-class perspective. We attempt to connect those problems to potential solutions. We report on the abuses and wrongdoing of corporate power. And we seek to hold accountable the ultra-rich who have too much power over America’s political and economic systems.

To support our independent journalism, subscribe, donate, and follow our other pages through the links below:
– Help fund our reporting: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mpu-splash
– Substack: https://substack.perfectunion.us/
– TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moreperfectunion
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS
– Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/moreperfectunion.bsky.social
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MorePerfectUS
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectunion/
– Threads: https://www.threads.net/@perfectunion
– Website: https://www.perfectunion.us

Written by More Perfect Union

Comments

This post currently has 49 comments.

  1. @AmerBoyo

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    I still don’t get why people are so obsessed with the decline of the high street as we call it here in the UK (Main street in the US I think). We all love to shop online, and we all know this is killing business in our town centres. The best thing we could do is turn these places into housing, or better yet a park!! Having more internet won’t fix this issue either!

  2. @JamesPratt-v1g

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Economic development and rural area says zero to do with Internet. They can get Internet in many ways. They can use Starlink and they can use DSL with AT&T. The problem is AT&T rips you off on the prices Starling does not.

  3. @JamesPratt-v1g

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Normal cable Internet is way cheaper and more cost-effective than fiber optic. If you think we need fiber optic in the entire country, you’re insane. I do not have fiber optic and I have massively good Internet so what the hell do you think you need fiber optic for most cities, big ones don’t even have it.

  4. @LiveLoveLaugh5685

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.”
    ‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭🙏

  5. @SirJohnsHandle

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Fibre is better, so why are the Hedge Funds propping up the SpaceX share price bubble?

    It's not a technology that is helping the Ukrainians win, it's a technology that's making them more likely to get Nuked. It emboldens the Ukrainians to sabotage every peace initiative, as they build bigger and bigger missiles to hit Russia with … a country with the world's largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

  6. @screenPhiles

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    This is exactly why Democrats are so awful. They seem to see everything through the lens of corporations; once again, not unlike the Republicans.

    If there were Post Office established in 1775 it would have been gifted to private corporations and they would have treated rural Americans in the same fashion.

    What the Democrats need to do is to let government build it, since they typically can do so cheaper than corporations.

  7. @byronedwards8157

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Robbing our broadband is scratching the surface. Starlink is taking that money to weaponize its fleet of satellites into geoengineered disaster capitalism, literally weaponizing vlf, microwave and UV frequencies against us with amplified and manufactured floods and fires, blame it all on climate change, steal our water and food chain and then go back and ransack the treasury again. Elon Musk is a pirate disguised as a pollution salesman disguised as a Technocrat.

  8. @daveorsararing2019

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    I disagree on this one. First of all, I switched over to Starlink at my rural home and at my business in the city. In both situations, the cheapest level of Starlink has been superior to the Internet I had available. I’ve had 0% downtime for the last year. The price dropped to $50 a month. Very affordable. So why should cable Internet be installed in the ground or on utility poles and all that infrastructure paid for when it will wear out. The environmental costs of putting it in the ground, plus digging up properties in these huge rural areas where houses are far apart makes no sense. AT&T is a very scammy company to work with. Using infrastructure as a job creator. Is an old school talking point. Those are not permanent jobs. Spending billions on something that will last one generation is a waste of money. Especially when we already have something that requires you mounting a small dish and immediately receiving excellent Internet. I love this channel because it’s independent and non-partisan, but musk triggering people just because he’s rich is just another way of dividing everyone. He’s not perfect. And he’s not the devil. But he is obviously very smart. We need to get over it.

  9. @GbucketsH

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    When we had the first robber barons they at least had to try and help the cities by building schools and libraries, now they don't even have to bother. We have to pay them to f us now

  10. @deadave100

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    This "Scam Link' story got me thinking about the 2024 elections. Swing States..?
    Donvict Trump didn't win. He cheated with a little help from fElon…. #EpsteinFiles

    Screw the People, Donny wants a ballroom & a airplane, and statutes, and Trump's name here…there…everywhere…….."The Non-United States Of Trump"……
    When you elect a convicted felon for your president, expect a crime family, a criminal adminstration & some elite friends and they're ALL laughing all the way to the bank……..

  11. @BierManVA

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    So a few hundred million for Starlink out of 40 Billion is somehow a gift and a subsidy? I'd say the subsidy was going to fiber companies who somehow can't get it done! Starlink is fast and inexpensive compared to fiber. No amount if fiber is going to bring business back to some small town in Louisiana. This is just another anti-Trump, anti-Elon piece of propaganda.

  12. @RobertJanik-m1x

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Starlink can easily go bankrupt. It might be a good option for an individual or family in areas without internet, but you still need fiber optics for businesses and for the future. Without much more reliable land based infrastructure you cannot revive these places that are struggling. BTW Starlink could also become a victim of an attack. Imagine if Iran instead of blocking Hormuz just fires missiles into space with their capability say up to 2000 km. When payload detonates it creates thousands of pieces of debris which will be moving at roughly 0 speed with respect to ground. When any orbiting satellite passing through the debris at the speed of 7.8 km/s gets hit by a smallest piece, like a 5mm bolt, it gets shredded into pieces and than other satellites in a chain reaction that would leave low Earth orbit full of junk that would not only make any satellite internet impossible, but GPS would go dark, even geostationary satellite signals would be disrupted. Basically we would return to the dark ages of pre-Sputnik era. No space travel, no satellite deployments, until all debris slows down due to friction and falls into the atmosphere where it would burn. Clearing the low Earth orbit would take like 5 decades. SpaceX would go bankrupt. We would basically go back by 80 years or so when it comes to space technologies. So any country really needs this modern land based infrastructure, electrical distribution, fiber optics etc.

  13. @TheMagicJIZZ

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Starlink was literally founded in 2019? To moan about them applying for subsidies for ground stations when at&t and charter or Cox or Verizon etc for what? 50 years now? How much money have they got

    It's just super biased because it's low earth orbit internet. It's not meant to replace 5G or wired completely

  14. @jjamespacbell

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    What bullshit, fiber will never get distributed to isolated communities, Starlink works and is available everywhere now. Fiber requires expensive lines and is only available for dense population zones, this is not a conspiracy it is reality. 
    Starlink can and does support a jet airplane with hundreds of people it is more than enough for schools and 99% of most businesses 
    video 10:33 "we have been working for 5 years to get lake providence fiber" You could install Starling in 1 week, if fiber ever shows up fine take out starlink move the dishes to the next town dishes are just a few hundren dollars

  15. @rdtrains

    October 3, 2026 at 11:12 am

    Starlink currently has 10,000 active satellites orbiting earth. This is roughly 2/3 of total satellites orbiting right now. Musk has too much power and influence over many aspects of life and until he gets reigned in it will only get worse.

  16. @tedmaul5842

    October 3, 2026 at 11:13 am

    Broadband is now a utility and like all utilities (gas, water, energy, transport) it should be in public ownership. Private companies are always brought in to build the networks and maintain them but can only be allowed to operate independently under severe regulatory frameworks.
    Hooking up more remote communities while more expensive, can be mitigated under mass rollout of much larger network investment.
    The myth about private companies being more innovative and providing cheaper, more efficient services is just that, a myth.
    Private companies just end up running public monopolies at much greater costs to the public.

Leave a Reply





This area can contain widgets, menus, shortcodes and custom content. You can manage it from the Customizer, in the Second layer section.

 

 

 

  • play_circle_filled

    92.9 : The Torch

  • play_circle_filled

    AGGRO
    'Til Deaf Do Us Part...

  • play_circle_filled

    SLACK!
    The Music That Made Gen-X

  • play_circle_filled

    KUDZU
    The Northwoods' Alt-Country & Americana

  • play_circle_filled

    BOOZHOO
    Indigenous Radio

  • play_circle_filled

    THE FLOW
    The Northwoods' Hip Hop and R&B

play_arrow skip_previous skip_next volume_down
playlist_play