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> Yes but those "administration fees" (or kickback or whatever you > want to call them) of some of the profits doesn't make the > government the party who wanted, proposed and ultimately benefits the > most from the creation of a monopoly. Here's an analogy: If money > could influence the fundamental regulating rules of baseball, some > wealthy/ advertising market rich team, like Steinbrunner's Yankees, > would propose that they deserved to have more players on the field > than a poorer / smaller media market team. Dan--did you know that Major League Baseball pays no taxes, although the teams do? MLB is a tax-exempt entity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(6), with the tax returns as open, public documents. The tax exempt status is the reason why there were hearings in Congress regarding illegal steroid use. Bad analogy. The government is all over MLB with oversight. Maybe not so for MLS, NBA or NFL? Baseball isn't a sport, it's a pastime. Shouldn't TV, cable, satellite companies pay for the frequencies that they use since those are owned by the general public? Even cable receives satellite communications over publicly owned frequencies. There seems to be a misunderstanding of the commons, i.e., publicly owned property, and the rights of the owners [us] vs. use by private companies with little or no reimbursement to us, and often great profit to them. And sports franchises have the nerve to demand that cities pay huge sums to build new stadiums resulting in big profits for the teams, and little revenue to the cities--sometimes even a net loss. No wonder cities like LA aren't in any hurry to attract a new football team. We don't appreciate Maryland giving money to the Orioles or Ravens when they hardly have anything left of our tax revenue to send to rural counties. The government is NOT a business. It exists to serve the people. If you don't have good public servants, you have voted for the wrong people. > Business, like sports, only works if all teams/ business are > guaranteed a level playing field and a fair chance to compete and > that depends on a neutral umpire/ governance to regulate and enforce > the rules that are made to protect everyone's common interest rather > than the individual's ability to maximize profit or wins. There's no "level playing field" in communications since the Fairness Doctrine was thrown out. There's no "level playing field" in the energy industry as long as coal and petro get almost free resources on public lands and they, along with nuclear, get $billions in subsidies, while renewables had no subsidies at all for years and now get $millions in contrast to the others' $billions. Oil that's pumped out of the ground in Saudi Arabia for $4/barrel sells here for $100/barrel on what "level playing field"? Where's the "level playing field" in broadband where service is down while prices continue to go up? Competition--not. Cartels are more like it--deliberate or not. ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
