David Connors wrote:
On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 3:21 AM, Les Hughes <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
My opinion: Labor's NBN is a good idea. In reality it will
probably take 2, 3, or more times as long, and be the same in
cost. Is fibre great? Sure. Is fibre great at $10,000+ per house.
No. Is $10,000 fibre per house even better when it's all
controlled by a government monopoly? Yes! Whoops, I mean @#*&#*&*$
NOOO!
If one accepts the idea that fast broadband will economically
revolutionise the country by allowing people to do all sorts of high
bandwidth stuff, then the CVC charges need to go - full stop. The
direct result of that is that the project needs to be not treated as
an investment with a financial return, but just treated as a social
welfare project and moved onto the appropriate place in the budget
with health, education, etc.
Somewhat ironically, I would have a lot less of a problem with the
project if the government did that: Call a spade a spade.
Bonus question: If you were spending your personal money on a project
that was proceeding at <1% of its stated goals, how long would you
continue investing?
Agreed.
What's also funny about the "revolutionise" and "information economy"
rhetoric is that there are many countries with fibre in either a
significant part, or nearly all of the country, and yet we don't see
them increasing their wealth by anything noticeable, and where are the
hover cars at?
It's also funny that when one attacks the NBN (either plan from either
party), they are made to look like somehow they are against fast internet.
Frédéric Bastiat said it well ~200 years ago:
“Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the
distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every
time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists
conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state
education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education.
We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no
religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say
that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the
socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do
not want the state to raise grain.”
When searching for this quote I found this page, and taking a quick look
at a few of the others posted, some of you might get a kick out of them:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/89275.Fr_d_ric_Bastiat
Happy Monday!
--
Les Hughes
[email protected]
