At 10:07 AM 2/18/2010, b_s-wilk wrote: >So, you don't want universal broadband--admit it--or you have a better idea >that works. Unregulated capitalism doesn't work; never did; never will.
I'm not advocating unregulated capitalism. We sure **don't** have unregulated capitalism here in the U.S. But regulation breeds corruption, whether in the form of corrupt regulators themselves, or in the form of corrupt legislators who write the laws providing the regulation. Degree of regulation is the issue. And how you regulate the regulators. I'd love to see universal broadband. I'd love to see the government require that the companies that string coax and fiber provide service to everyone -- mandated in the same fashion as universal telephone service is. But that hasn't happened yet. We've also pretty much mandated universal availability of electric power, except maybe in the deep woods. Make the power companies string cable along with their powerlines? Figure out how to do it in a fair way. Or just let the government build it the way they do highways? I'll bet the "universal" broadband in other countries really doesn't cover everyone. Does it? Even those in very sparsely settled areas? The percentage in some countries is likely higher because a greater portion of the country's population lives in a high-population-density area that in the U.S. We have a huge fraction of the population that live "in the country," where it is very expensive to provide broadband on a per drop basis. Fred Holmes ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
