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G_Poobah
join:2004-01-17
Schenectady, NY
| reply to Tzale
Re: 100 MB broadband for all
Hmm.. I sort of live in the boonies. Yet I have cable TV? How could that be?
Ahh, right, it wasn't their choice. As part of the agreement to make money off the 'high profit' part of town, the cable company was REQUIRED to run cables to everyone.
That's why we used to be a 'democracy', not a 'fascist state'. Even though I'm NOT in the 'high profit' area, myself, and most of the rest of the voters, determined that it was in OUR best interest if everyone was served. Ergo, if you want to sell cable tv, or internet, or anything in our town, you have to do it for EVERYONE in our town. That is democracy in action.
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Flabby? pastey-skinned? riddled with phlebitis? Then you've got a good Republican body! So compare your lives to mine, and then kill yourself. | |
axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| The difference now is that monopoly companies can afford to choose not to serve the community at all if those are the conditions. I think the cable companies were a lot smaller back then, right? And cable TV wasn't as tantalizing as broadband is now... more difficult for collective bargaining. Technically this is fine, its not the company's fault if people don't stand up for themselves... unless laws are passed via lobbying preventing it, then that's dirty. | |
Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| reply to G_Poobah
Re: 100 MB broadband for all
Actually, forcing private investors to build things because the mob requires it sounds more like a facist state then a democracy.. 
What you describe is the almost exactly the argument of communism, just so you know.
Capitalism is good because it provides the incentive to improve. Otherwise no one would, and if things are not improving, they're going the other way. The government is there to make sure system abuse is not occuring.
Now if companies want to receive public help (tax breaks, subsidies, etc.) to build their business, then they're beholden to public desire (other than market forces) as the public is, essentially, a stakeholder at that point. | |
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