AT&T made a lot of money because they were allowed to have a monopoly.
They used that money for some very good things like Bell Labs, a hotbed
of primary research that was applied to lots of good inventions, and for
Telstar. The Telstar satellites were developed with private AT&T funds
that they accumulated from the monopoly [also funded by the Brits and
the French govts]. Federally funded NASA launched the satellites for
AT&T. Those early satellites were the foundation of phone, radio, TV,
Internet communications--supported with federal investment.
Unix was developed in Bell Labs. UC Berkeley received funds from DARPA
to develop its version of BSD Unix in the federally funded Computer
Systems Research Group. The cold war gave the feds another excuse to
funnel funds to universities and private companies to develop and
implement new technology.
Ancient history? Feds have allowed local monopolies in broadband
development and service; that allowed the companies to get a decent
return on investment--unfortunately they have turned around and gouged
their customers instead of passing on the federal portion to their
customers. Getting immunity from prosecution in the latest FISA bill
will also save $billions in legal costs. That's another handout from the
government, but not nearly as useful to the public as past federal support.
Good to see that you admit you were sleeping in class while the
government was doing good things for the public, instead of spying on us.
Betty
What a wonderfully warm and fuzzy Rotary Club speech. After reading that we
should be locking the doors on the labs and standing over the scientists
with cattle prods and menacing looks. "Work smarter *and* harder! Damn it,
we're nationally and economically insecure! There aren't any stupid
questions *or* answers! And for the love of god, whatever you do, don't
stop shoveling the money in the door!"
Too bad none of it is even the slightest bit relevant to the topic at hand.
Broadband subsidy plans don't involve R&D, unless the politicos can come up
with a way to stuff the bill with almost credible sounding language to
torque up the pork-slinging to their constituents and major donors. No,
they're just out-and-out cash deals, not too unlike the Plexiglas cylinders
on game shows where they blow the money up into the air for the contestants
to grab as much of as they can before the fan turns off.
Oh, and thanks to the remarkable foresight displayed above, we now have an
expensive broadband oligopoly, and if you're really lucky, a nominally
competitive market. Thank god you have the answer to this problem: more of
the same, only bigger. Much, much bigger; it's the Ted Stevens plan.
Political solutions to non-political, perceived problems. Yeah, that works
every time.
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