Jack, Campaign Contribution regulation is only one part of the solution to the problem. There are many ways to "buy" votes after the election is over and the politicians are in office. Regulating campaign contributions would just put more "corporate" money into the pot to fund trips, pet projects, hold lavish banquets, buy sporting event tickets and so forth.
I do however agree that our elected officials do not control the country anymore. The large enabled Corporations guide policy as they see fit. This allows these corporations to get even bigger and there grasp on policy even stronger. The US is quickly becoming a monopolistic society in my eyes and twenty years from now our children are going to wonder just how ignorant their parents were for allowing this to happen. A quick analogy if I might. When I used to farm, it amazed me that people complained about farmer subsidies. Farmers are price takers and have little control over neither the price of the products they produce nor the cost of the supplies to produce these products. Agriculture subsidies were essential to even get the bottom line into the black in most cases. Large corporations control grain prices as well as input costs. If grain prices went up, input costs would go up as well, leaving the farmer with a relatively flat and thin margin. These subsidies however, were often spent locally supporting the local economies. When a farmer makes a good profit, he normally will buy more equipment (US made) and support the rural economy in which they reside. Taking away the profit potential of farmers does more to sour rural economies than anything else I can think of. I believe that is why I am so excited about the Ethanol and Biodiesel explosion. In this analogy, the large chemical/seed/equipment companies have been allowed to dictate agriculture policy to protect and improve their profit margins at the expense of the family farm. Farmers today either get big or they die. The telecommunications industry is heading much the same way. So much clout has been handed over to the ILECs (or is it one ILEC yet?) that there is little true competition. Tier One markets are primary targets for these corporations, the rural economy isn't worth their time to even consider. Rural America would be all but dead today (from a technological standpoint) if it wasn't for WISPs. It's time the FCC realizes this. Respectfully, Rick Harnish President OnlyInternet Broadband & Wireless, Inc. 260-827-2482 Founding Member of WISPA -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jack Unger Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:17 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Open Meeting on 700 MHz John, Regarding your comment: "Enabling thousands of new bustling and growing entrepreneurs to build local wireless communication broadband companies is the smartest thing they could do which is why they will not do it." Yes, creating and supporting new entrepreneurs is what government "should" do but our government has become corrupted (there, I did it... I uttered the "C word") by the big money from large, entrenched, politically-connected corporations. By providing large political campaign contributions and gifts (like trips on corporate jets) large corporations now control how new laws are written and how existing laws are enforced. It should be no surprise that new laws are written to benefit large corporations. Back when I was a child (in the 50's) I was taught and I believed that the job of government was to "do the greatest good for the greatest number of people". Today, that's changed. Now, it's my impression that our government writes laws to benefit those who contribute the most money to political parties. In the last few years, there are examples of bills that were actually written directly by large, politically-connected corporations, delivered to Congress, voted on and passed into law. Because laws written today fail to benefit the majority of the people, our real economy is going downhill. Our government prints billions of new dollars each month (millions of dollars each day) but these dollars are not being circulated in our real-world, local-businesses economy. These dollars are circulated on Wall Street. These dollars are circulated between our government and large corporations. These dollars are circulated between foreign central banks in countries outside the U.S. Now that I've framed the problem (political corruption), I have an obligation to do more than just complain. I have an obligation to outline the solution. The solution is to take the money out of politics. Allow all candidates to campaign with an small but equal amount of public money (our money). Remember, the job of politicians is to write the laws that govern our country. By taking the large-corporation money out of politics, politicians will be reminded each day who they are supposed to be working for... they're supposed to be working for "us". "Us" is not large corporations. "Us" is real-world, middle-class, grass-roots, local-entrepreneur, working people. By taking the large-corporation, big-money factor out of politics, government will once again write laws that bring "the greatest good to the greatest number of people". The FCC will then promote policies that truly build, benefit and support local economies. jack John Scrivner wrote: > > > Travis Johnson wrote: > >> John, >> >> This is just my opinion, but I seriously doubt the FCC is just going >> to "give" away 700MHz licenses, even on a per base station basis. > > I never said they should "give" it to us. I said they should have base > station sized auctions. They can include an opening bid amount. They > always do. > >> And the WISP community is not going to spend even $5,000 per license >> if they could. > > I would spend $20K+ per base station license. I am not kidding. I would > do it in a heartbeat because I could make it back in one year alone from > not having to tell people NO when we could not get them signal. > >> The cell companies will be bidding, and once again it will be in the >> millions of dollars per region. > > It is like farm ground. We are the farmers. None of us can farm if we > have to buy a million square acres of ground to farm. It is not fair. It > is exactly the same correlation and the FCC needs to hear it. (And > understand it which is a big stretch for them) > >> >> Honestly, what would you do if you were the FCC? Deal with hundreds or >> thousands of little operators at $5,000 per license, or sell 3 or 4 >> licenses for the entire US for millions of dollars? > > It is NOT about what is easier for them. It is a matter of what is best > for the country. Enabling thousands of new bustling and growing > entrepreneurs to build local wireless communication broadband companies > is the smartest thing they could do which is why they will not do it. > Scriv > >> >> Travis >> Microserv >> >> John Scrivner wrote: >> >>> Apparently there is a meeting scheduled today, April 25, at the FCC >>> over how the 700 MHz band is going to be split up for auction. It >>> amazes me how we can be kept in the dark about these meetings. If >>> anyone can tell me how to get included on announcements of such >>> meetings I need to know about it. This really angers me that we are >>> not there with some representation today. If anyone reads this who is >>> near the DC area please go to this meeting and tell them we need >>> spectrum to be made available on a base station license basis. They >>> need to auction off individual base station licenses or reserve some >>> for a flat fee so all of us can compete. If they do not then hundreds >>> if not thousands of operators who are now serving rural broadband >>> will not be able to compete. This is an anti-competitive problem that >>> the FCC needs to address with this auction. This is a big deal. If we >>> do not get some 700 MHz or similar sub- 1 GHz spectrum it is going to >>> be very bad for us all. >>> Scriv >>> -- Jack Unger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. FCC License # PG-12-25133 Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 Author of the WISP Handbook - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs" True Vendor-Neutral Wireless Consulting-Training-Troubleshooting FCC Part 15 Certification Assistance for Wireless Service Providers Phone (VoIP Over Broadband Wireless) 818-227-4220 www.ask-wi.com -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
