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Verizon-Pushed WiFi Bill Becomes Law in PA
Cryofan writes "A Wall Street Journal article (via freepress) tells the sad tale of how legislation barring PA municipalities from offering paid telecom services was signed into law. 'Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell said late Tuesday night that he had signed into law a large telecommunications bill placing severe restrictions on the ability of cities and towns to offer telecommunications services, an item that was heavily lobbied by Verizon Communications Inc. and other big telephone companies in similar legislation across the country.'" (Also mentioned last week.)
This law just prevents the government from giving out free access to the internet. It's a real killer to the socialists out there that want the government to supply everything, but oh well... I guess you'll have to go support the economy and purchase your access.
Because when using tax dollars, the government can be as inefficient as it wants. It can run the operation at a loss, and hurt Verizon just because some big govt liberal doesnt like the private sector. Duh.
Why not just have the state government run its own phone company? Its own cable company? Its own satellite service? All of these things can be delivered wirelessly after all...
DISCLAIMER: I'm a Verizon (VZ) shareholder, and loving every minute of it.
Unfortunately, these are the steps that are not necessary to prevent government from completely overstepping it's bounds. Government run businesses are (at best) a necessary evil, and when they're not necessary, they're just plain evil.
I don't want my local city (or state or national) government both participating in, and regulating the activites of, commerce and trade. To do both would be a conflict of interest...and since once of the rights that governments get to enjoy exclusively is the right to regulate, I choose option number 2.
So I know all the dot.communists out there see this as a tragic blow for the free people of the world, but I agree with Verizon...I don't want the government selling me anything, because if they rip me off, who am I going to complain to?