Yesterday I heard and read a lot of commentary about net neutrality almost all of which was specious and had only a tangential relationship to the truth. What the ISPs want to do is something that hasn’t even been contemplated by the power company or the telephone company. I’ll trying making a correct analogy.
Imagine that your power company went to Frigidaire and GE and demanded that, unless they paid your power company a fee, they’d produce brownouts and intermittent power outages in every home that had a Frigidaire or GE refrigerator. Frigidaire and GE cough up and raise the prices of their refrigerators. BTW, this is one of the reasons we shouldn’t want the Internet of Things.
What I want is for consumers to get what they’ve contracted for and what they’re paying for. The ISPs shouldn’t be able to demand protection money from the Googles, Facebooks, and Netflixes of the world. What’s next, Vinnie the Leg Breaker? Cable companies and telephone companies merely getting into the ISP or content businesses are classic examples of the abuse of monopoly power. The Justice Department should be breaking up Comcast and Time-Warner.
I continue to be gobsmacked that alleged libertarians have allied with the ISPs, of which of the majors every single one has achieved its position through monopoly power, and against the upstarts. Every single business model argument I’ve ever heard can equally be made against GE and GM and I haven’t heard the same complaints about them.
That isn’t libertarianism. It isn’t even anarcho-capitalism. It’s corporatism and support of government monopolies. Everything is turning into its opposite.
What’s next, Vinnie the Leg Breaker?
Worse: Vinnie the Corporate Trial Lawyer.
Everything is turning into its opposite.
I think it’s more that people have simply chosen sides. And if the other guy wants it, it must be bad for me to let him have it.
And given the way the world works these days, I’m not even sure they’re wrong. Seriously, the President is threatening the people that work for him if they ENFORCE THE LAWS AS WRITTEN. In such a world, who can believe that anything is what it purports to be?
He’s a legitimate businessman!
A hired thug is a thug whether he works with brass knuckles or a pen.
This will be great protection for the consumer. I am sure any involvement by the big boys is only for the betterment of mankind.
Tom Wheeler tweaks net neutrality plan after Google push
Eliminating cable and dsl for internet access leaves satellite and dial-up, and satellite uses dial-up for upload data. I think there is a way to multiplex dialup, but it will never get the speed of cable or dsl.
The other options are laying in new cables, using the electric grid, or wireless.
If all these big companies are concerned about the little guy, they could pay the legal expenses for somebody to sue for not getting what they paid for. With enough funds, the suit could afford to put on experts and drag it out as long as necessary.
Of course, none of this is about protecting the consumer. This is all about who gets to screw the consumer.
A hired thug is a thug whether he works with brass knuckles or a pen.
Yeah, but you’ve got a better chance against the guy with the brass knuckles.
I’m not sure if the conservatives/libertarians who are blindly anti-government are in cahoots with corporatism or are just plain stupid, not that it matters much.
By the way, this is a fantastic post on this topic Dave and I linked to it in a comment over at econolib.