BellSouth: Charge for Website Speed > Out of control

Out of control

your post references two different concepts:
1. Greed
2. Buying legislation

My response:

1. Greed is fine. Nothing wrong with wanting to make as much money as possible. This is at the heart of capitalism, which is what the USA is about. "...share the pie..." is for communist countries. The American Dream involves working to earn as much as you can for yourself and your family. Sharing is secondary effect of generous people. Forcing sharing results in communism.

2. Buying legislation is something that really needs to be addressed. It is very evident now that corporations can 'buy land' using eminent domain rule. Basically, they can go to a town and say that they want waterfront property for building malls, which will generate more tax and jobs than what that land is already being used for.... that's just an example, but it shows that the abuse exists.

Now that being said, capitalism is by no means perfect, and I think part of the problem you refer to of corporations taking over the world has nothing to do with capitalism. It has to do with capitalism in a democratic/republic society.

Question for you:
How would Bellsouth charging Google money for bandwidth lead to the destruction of the USA. Or more generically, how does corporation using monetary power to persuade elected officials lead to the destruction of the USA?

Maybe the problem is the corporation, maybe it's the elected officials which lack morals and the right mind not be persuaded by the all mighty dollar?

reply to Gandalf1315
I am all for corps making money, but it does seem they have crossed over to the dark side lately.

reply to nonner9

That first quote was somewhat taken out of context, mainly because I left out the word "alone".

Here's correction:
Now that being said, capitalism is by no means perfect, and I think part of the problem you refer to of corporations taking over the world has nothing to do with capitalism ALONE. It has to do with capitalism in a democratic/republic society.

Capitalism alone is not the problem. When you mix Capitalism with a democracy/republic AND immoral people then you get the oligarchy that you mentionned.
So a corporation might try to influence the law in their favor, the fact that they try is only half the problem, which I think most
people fail to see. If the other half of the problem did not cave in when they saw the all mighty dollar, then that would mean corporations
could try all they want, but it won't do any good.

As much as I don't like corporations using monetary power to sway the law in their favor, we should be more concerned
about the people who these corporations are swaying on their behalf.

"...isn't good for us, but only good for them..."
Businesses are in business for themselves, not to help the general population. In a communist country, everyone works for everyone else, which we all know doesn't work.
So, why would you expect a business to make business decision that helps people besides themselves?

The other VoIP companies don't have to raise their rates, in fact, they would be smart to lower them and block all bellsouth customers, so when Bellsouth customers want to get a cheaper VoIP they will find out that it doesn't work on the Bellsouth network. I think your argument assumes that the consumer is dumb and won't take any actions. Is this true, and why?

What's wrong with letting the market run itself? Bellsouth is not trying become a monopoly? You might say that they are using their position as a ISP to eliminate competition from VoIP or search engines. From my point of view, Bellsouth is making a bad business decision. Is this not a valid view?

reply to bmn
yes, we should be concerned about both

and what I'm trying to point out is that most people overlook the fact that it's a two-way deal

reply to nonner9
Businesses are business because we live in a capitalist society that allows individuals to do such a thing. Greed is not capitalism. Greed is one possible result of capitalism. Capitalism is about diversity in the marketplace because just about anybody should be able to get their foot in the door. The problem with the current corporate thinking is they adhere only to greed and not to why they are in business in the first place: to provide a product and/or service.

Bellsouth is looking at greed. Not capitalism. They provide a service, which in this case is Internet connectivity. That is all they should be concerned about. Instead they look at other successful businesses who happen to use their service and think they can squeeze more money out of those businesses for whatever twisted excuse they can think of. The end result is still the same. They ONLY provide the connection and these successful businesses are either already paying for that or their customers are. Trying to take more is rather anti-competitive, and as a result sort of anti-capitalist when you look at it from a certain perspective.

reply to nonner9