Internet

[Von Fugal]

Oh now you come off it, stewart!

<quote name="Stuart Jansen" date="Fri, 12 Nov 2010 at 13:21 -0700">
> On Fri, 2010-11-12 at 13:03 -0700, Von Fugal wrote:
> > Oh, I don't know, because they PROVIDE the SERVICE??
> > 
> > If you don't like what they block, then pay someone else, like XMission.
> 
> You know, it's really too bad the electric companies weren't more
> forward thinking. They should have fought for the right to approve what
> type of appliances could be plugged into the electric grid. Just think
> how much progress we could have made as a society! Perhaps even flying
> cars and teleportation. But because they didn't see what was coming, now
> all I have is a crappy dishwasher, high def tv, and a mac book.

Electric companies are either government provided or have government
sanctioned monopolies.

> AT&T fought the good fight to keep its phone lines pure, but sadly the
> evil competition haters in the government saw an end to that. Now look
> at the cesspool we live it. My rotary phone broke last week and I won't
> be able to get a replacement for months. If only it were possible to
> carry a phone around in my pocket. I'm sure AT&T would have created one
> for us if the government had just let them continue to control their
> customers with an iron fist.

AT&T is THE prime example of a government sanctioned monopoly. They
could have just as easily revoked the monopoly and still solved the
problem. No need to "require" AT&T to follow any specific policy.

> Oh well, I guess it give me more time to live in a the fantasy world in
> my head where government regulation makes competition possible.

That is an oxymoron. Government regulation makes less competition.
-- 
Von Fugal
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://plug.org/pipermail/plug/attachments/20101112/f7884bc5/attachment.bin