 SnakeoilIgnore Button. The coward's feature.Premium
join:2000-08-05
Mentor, OH
kudos:1
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·magicjack.com
| reply to futuresmkt
Re: [General] Should the internet be a Regulated utility? Internet access is a luxury, just like owning a TV.
If you need to go online, you could always go to the public library.
IMO, the one thing that needs to change is to break the last mile, and force companies to open access to their networks.
Hence if I want to switch to Comcast from Time Warner, I could.
Currently I can't. As the cable companies appear to lock down regions and block competition.
Also, investors, as well as the providers, want a fast turn around on their investment. Meaning if they spend 100k to roll cable into an area, how long will it take to recover that 100k?
2 years, no problem, 10 plus years, then I doubt that they'll roll the cable.
With the debt as high as it is, you want to add to it, by rolling out broadband to remote areas, and let the tax payer eat the cost.
Nope. It shouldn't happen.
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Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?. |
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SnakeoilIgnore Button. The coward's feature.Premium
join:2000-08-05
Mentor, OH
kudos:1 Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
·magicjack.com
| reply to futuresmkt
said by futuresmkt:I'm surprised at the number of replies and their intensity. For clarification, I meant "exist" as a generalization. The internet is increasingly a fundamental part of everyday existence. Can I live without it? Yes. Could I live without indoor plumbing, highways, sanitation services? Yes. We use the internet for information, communication, employment services, bill paying, etc. As I volunteer, I see less well off people suffering because they can't access it. That was my point.
Why can't they access it? They lack means of getting to a public library?
Heck, with all the people I see toting around smart phones [I'm not going to open a discussion about that], you'd think they'd be able to go to a McD's, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Public library, and many other places and use the free wifi service they provide.
Sure it's a convince to have internet access at your home, but then again, with he market loaded with cheap wifi tablets/devices, finding a free/open wifi spot shouldn't be that hard to do.
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Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?. |
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 John GaltForward, MarchPremium
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp
kudos:5 | reply to Snakeoil
said by Snakeoil:IMO, the one thing that needs to change is to break the last mile, and force companies to open access to their networks. Like THAT is ever going to happen. |
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 nunyaWho is John Galt?Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-23
O Fallon, MO
kudos:8
·Charter
 ·surpasshosting
·voip.ms
| reply to futuresmkt
As I volunteer, I see less well off people suffering because they can't access it.
As I volunteer, I see the vast majority "less well off" people suffering because of poor decisions made by themselves or their parents.
I see them suffering because they failed to apply themselves and use the FREE public educational system to its full potential.
I see them suffering because they couldn't keep their legs closed or their dicks in their pants. Condoms are cheap. PP gives them away for free.
I see them suffering because they decided drugs were the answer. I see them suffering because they don't like to go to work.
I see them suffering because they are content to milk the system and not use any of the free continuing education resources available to them.
I see them suffering because they use their WIC and EBT for candy, soda, cigarettes, and liquor instead of real nutritional food. If you think that "doesn't happen", you have your head in the sand. I see it almost daily.
I do not see them suffering for a lack of internet service. In the United States, our "poor" people have cell phones, cars, houses, candy, and nights out on the town. Go to India some time and see how their *poor* people live.
Rarely, and I mean rarely, do I see someone in a bad position through no fault of their own. Usually it's some sort of major physical disability or mental illness.
As I volunteer, it's a very rare occasion that I see someone in these scenarios who wants to fight and work to get out of the situation and better their lives. Most just want something for nothing. Sorry. It's the truth.
The only reason I continue to do volunteer work is that rare exception. People that have "that spark". The 1 in a 1,000 who really truly want to make a better life for themselves and their children.
The only ones I feel sorry for are the kids, and they get free internet access and free meals at school.
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If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't. |
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 Mr NeutronMackerel by MoonlightPremium
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME | reply to futuresmkt
said by futuresmkt:Shouldn't everyone have equal access to the same speed at the same (low) price?
Golly: you want to set pricing, too? Didn't anyone learn anything from the Nixon administration's disastrous attempts at wage and price controls?
If you want to encourage something to be 1) widely available and 2) relatively inexpensive, history indicates that regulating it is not the way to go. Regulation invariably favours incumbent firms, not start-ups. Lowering the barriers to entry is essential for any market to grow and regulation is anathema to that.
Maybe it's just me, but I'm constantly amazed at how many people earnestly believe that any given situation can be improved by regulating it (the influence of the statist public schools at work, perhaps?). In any case, if there's an ungameable system in place somewhere, I'd love to know what it is (so I can make my own attempt at gaming it, of course).
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Joey? Have you ever been in a....in a Turkish prison? |
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| reply to nunya
Dunno where you live but around here WIC and EBT can't be used to buy alcohol or cigarettes, the charge is refused at the register same as if you try to buy booze after 9 P.M. |
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| reply to Mr Neutron
I think you have that backwards. From all I've seen is that deregulation allows the big players to buy out or crush the startups and smaller competition.
Deregulation is why the baby bells have re-coalesced into what they are today and why we have the dualopolies with a strangle hold in the market. |
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Mr NeutronMackerel by MoonlightPremium
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME | said by intok:I think you have that backwards. From all I've seen is that deregulation allows the big players to buy out or crush the startups and smaller competition.
Regulations cost money to meet. Start-ups are typically short on money.
If you'll allow me to say so, you're also overlooking the fact that incumbents often hire lobbyists to help write the regulations that are going to keep things "fair."  Start-ups don't typically have that kind of dough.
Sure, the big boys can buy out existing companies. The idea here is to make entry into the market as inexpensive as possible for anyone who wants to get into the business. Start-ups are better off directing their money towards product development and marketing, not towards lobbying or meeting a bunch of regulations that their competitors have lobbied to have written.
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Joey? Have you ever been in a....in a Turkish prison? |
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Mr NeutronMackerel by MoonlightPremium
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME | reply to intok
said by intok:Dunno where you live but around here WIC and EBT can't be used to buy alcohol or cigarettes, the charge is refused at the register same as if you try to buy booze after 9 P.M.
If it doesn't put you at any sort of personal risk, can you please tell us, roughly, where "around here" is? Just giving the state is fine.
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Joey? Have you ever been in a....in a Turkish prison? |
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| Wisconsin.
So explain how the current situation happened after the breakup of the Bell system.
We broke it up because it was exerting it's monopoly on the market.
Also, you think regulations cost too much to meet? so it would be fine for us to have flammable rivers »www.cleveland.com/science/index.···s_a.html again? Because it's a fallacy that corporations will do what is good for the public good just to protect their reputation. Corporations only do what they are forced to by law via regulation, any they still try their damnedest to weasel out of it. |
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Mr NeutronMackerel by MoonlightPremium
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME | said by intok:Also, you think regulations cost too much to meet?
I never said that regulations cost too much to meet. I said that incumbents are better placed to absorb the costs of meeting them.
said by intok: Corporations only do what they are forced to by law via regulation, any they still try their damnedest to weasel out of it.
Please look up the term "regulatory capture." Once you understand that regulations are written, not in a vacuum, but in a political system where money talks, the fact that they tend to work against new firms and in favor of old ones with much larger chequebooks becomes much clearer.
I used to think that politicians work for the so-called "public interest," too, so you're certainly not alone in your way of thinking. However, politicians are far more likely to consider corporate interests than yours and mine because you and I don't have the money to buy them off. I'm sure that sounds terrible, but try getting the ear of a politician sometime without having your chequebook in your hand and you'll see what I mean.
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Joey? Have you ever been in a....in a Turkish prison? |
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Mr NeutronMackerel by MoonlightPremium
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME | reply to intok
said by intok:Dunno where you live but around here WIC and EBT can't be used to buy alcohol or cigarettes, the charge is refused at the register same as if you try to buy booze after 9 P.M.
I believe it works the same way in Ohio: you can't buy alcohol or cigs with WIC or EBT.
My experience with people who "play the system," so to speak, is that they come up with other ways* to earn money and when they want to buy booze or cigs, out comes a wad of cash to pay for it. The WIC and EBT is used for important purchases like the soda and candy nunya mentioned earlier in the thread.
*In the interests of good taste, I really, really don't want to get into what some of those "other ways" are, and it's not hard to imagine what they are, so I will leave it to the reader to have a go at guessing what some of them might be.
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Joey? Have you ever been in a....in a Turkish prison? |
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 The LimitPremium
join:2007-09-25
Greensboro, NC
kudos:2
 ·Windstream
| reply to nunya
A bit judgmental there Nunya?
I see the same "well-off" people who complain about not getting something for nothing. So, it's not just "poor" people.
What I find ironic, and this is in no way reference to you, is that the same people who complain about people not taking advantage of our glorious educational system tend to be the ones who haven't really been in those circumstances before.
But otherwise, I am forced to agree with you. Just clarifying that our "poor" people aren't the only ones who feel entitled.
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"We will evaluate these integrals rigorously if we can, and non-rigorously if we must".
---Victor Moll, invited talk, Tom Osler Fest (April 17, 2010) |
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