In the 21st century, there are several ways to get the internet from here to there. Satellites, cell signals and other modes of communications are cheaper and more efficient than fiber optic cables.

Especially when linking homes and businesses separated by hundreds of miles, fiber optic cable is the least efficient technology and is most prone to failure.

Comes now the USDA and several other federal agencies who are taking a $60 billion gamble on linking rural America to the internet. Their goal is to string fiber optic cable between every farm, ranch, cabin and yurt in the U.S.

Good luck with that. The cost is astronomical, and needlessly so.

First, let’s take a look at some numbers. Assuming the federal government wants to link 60 million rural Americans to the internet, the cost will be $1,000 per person.

But that’s only any average number. In reality, the costs can be much higher.

For example, USDA announced $313 million in grants and loans in its 360 Reconnect program last week. The average cost per person is $6,470.

But that’s just a start. In the Pacific Northwest three grants and a loan were announced:

• The Midvale, Idaho, Telephone Co. received a $5.13 million loan coupled with an equal-sized grant to hook up 273 people in Valley County. That’s $37,582 per person.

• The Pioneer Telephone Cooperative in Lane County, Ore., will receive a grant of $4.4 million to hook up 75 people, 12 businesses and eight farms. That’s $46,315 per connection.

• In Washington state, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation received a $19.2 million grant to provide the internet to 165 people, six businesses and 20 farms in Okanagan County. That’s $100,523 per hookup.

Under the $42.45 billion federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, Oregon has received nearly $700 million, Washington received $1.22 billion, California will get $1.86 billion and Idaho $583 million.

We support internet for rural Americans. Just as the Rural Electrification Administration hooked up rural Americans to electricity, and telephone cooperatives brought communications to rural America, so too should the federal government participate in bringing the internet to the far corners of the nation.

But it should do it in an economically prudent manner, through no- or low-cost loans to local cooperatives or other organizations.

Congress continues to treat the federal treasury like an ATM machine, borrowing money to spray it across the countryside for every city, county and state with its hand out. It is an embarrassment and a disservice to the future generations of Americans, who will have to pay back that money.

All we’re saying is, yes, let’s connect all Americans with the internet. If they want it, the hookups should be affordable and reliable. The way to do that is through satellite and cell technology, not running fiber optic cable across the countryside.

The current program is a massive waste of money — like so many other things the federal government does.

Just Google “boondoggle,” and you’ll find it.