As far as not making a profit, might I point out how many radio stations there are, but how few of them are non-profit or listener supported?
How many stations do you have on TV and how many of them are PBS? How much time do most people spend watching PBS as opposed to CBS/NBC/ABC/Fox/CNN/HBO? If you remove the opportunity to make a decent profit, you remove the incentive to get into that market, thus reducing the number of choices available and that in turn reduces the need to compete. Example: When I was living inside the area covered by Austin Electric(municipal utility), I had to mail in a check every month and I had no opportunities to get a better rate. Moving out of the coverage area I had to select a provider, but that let me choose criteria that matter to me, not to the politician running the program, allowing me to both get a much better rate, as well as having online bill-pay.(these days I only write two checks a months: one for City of Austin Water, and one going to my church, everything else I take care of with EFT online because I have the option to do so). Also, when providing media, a 'minimum standard' quickly falls victim to the 'think of the children' mentality where certain people will be very loud in insisting that the radio/tv/internet needs to be sanitized so that children can not be exposed to things that those specific individuals object to(such as evolution or sex-ed in addition to porn and predators. And of those four, which ones do you think will get in anyway? Hint: it is not the first two) This is something that no government really wants, especially totalitarian regimes. They want the people to be fat and happy, and I can't think of many better ways to do than than cheap broadband and thousands of channels, half of them porn. I could see a theocracy trying this, but it could not be maintained at a space-faring TL, check the middle east, the places most theocratic are still stuck before the 1400's for the most part. On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Troy Guffey <[email protected]> wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Captain Joy" <[email protected]> > >> Hmmm, I notice you the ban is against "for-profit", which does not >> necessarily mean gov't control of said utilities. I.e. not-for-profit >> private concerns could own/operate just ventures. To that end, I'd make >> relevant devices one Legality Class less than the Control Rating. I.e. The >> gov't would know where all such devices where and who owns them; to obtain >> a device you would have to show need. >> >> As far as the CR for a such a society, I'd say CR4: Controlled [B506]. If >> the regulatory powers of the gov't mean they are actually monitoring TV, >> radio, and Internet, then, depending on what the gov't allows to be >> broadcast/sent, the society might actually be CR5. > > > I don't think you'd need to show need to own such a device. The government > is apparently just insuring that such a service IS PROVIDED by SOMEONE, and > they are not overtly making a profit. > > The same for the communications: They are not necessarily monitoring the > content, just that it is provided at some minimum standard. > > -- > Troy Guffey > ICQ: 1978644 > AIM: Pax214 > Y!: troyguffey > LiveJournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/troyguffey/ > PGP key ID: 0xDCCDF22D > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l > -- The man that holds fast to his bitterness will eventually be consumed by it, but if you let it go, your arms will be free to seize the glory that is life. -Terwin _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
