Barry Roberts wrote: > <things I probably agree with> A real problem with this debate (other than the fact that you top-posted), is that the word "marxism" and the word "socialism" have lost all meaning. Basically anything that people don't agree with is called "marxism," "socialism," or even "nazi" (or all three). Makes for really tiring political arguments. We would be advised to drop these words from our vocabulary as they have nothing to do with this particular debate, or in fact any of the recent political debates.
> There is a lot of network management going on already, and I don't think I > want the FCC meddling in it. I certainly don't want my tax dollars wasted > on universal broadband welfare as free press advocates. Personally I don't have a problem with it. If I'm already helping to fund something with tax dollars (subsidizing fiber deployments, etc), I certainly don't want to pay twice for something! Also I do have a tiny bit more control over the government than I do over arbitrary corporations, given the fact that telecoms are essentially local monopolies. A bit off-topic, but honestly I think the problem with a lot of government-run organizations is not that they are inefficient (most large private corporations are also inefficient), but that we demand they act like a private, for-profit corporation, which is silly since we're already paying for things. For those that work at BYU it's a bit like OIT. > Net neutrality is great. But I would prefer to see it encouraged by the > market (even though it won't be anywhere near perfect) than > technically-challenged bureaucrats. Except that the market cannot regulate because it is not free. When the barrier to entry is close to zero and we're flooded with ISP choices in Provo, then I'll believe that there is a free market. Because telecommunications by nature involves government-sanctioned monopolies--there is only so much land to build towers on and right-of-ways to run fiber along--then self regulation isn't going to work. /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
