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Krugman On the Connectivity Power Shift
In today's NYTimes (registration required), Paul Krugman's op-ed piece lays out in simple terms the statistical power shift in the online economy among Europe, Japan, and the US. This shift has been discussed here for some time, but it's good to see it coming to the attention of a wider audience. Quoting: "As recently as 2001, the percentage of the population with high-speed access in Japan and Germany was only half that in the United States. In France it was less than a quarter. By the end of 2006, however, all three countries had more broadband subscribers per 100 people than we did... [W]hen the Bush administration put Michael Powell in charge of the FCC, the digital robber barons were basically set free to do whatever they liked. As a result, there's little competition in U.S. broadband — if you're lucky, you have a choice between the services offered by the local cable monopoly and the local phone monopoly. The price is high and the service is poor, but there's nowhere else to go."
From the closing paragraph: "But it's interesting to learn that health care isn't the only area in which the French, who can take a pragmatic approach because they aren't prisoners of free-market ideology, simply do things better."
Interesting that Krugman uses France's health care system as a point of comparison. Particularly since the French are beginning to realize they can't afford it any more.
What part of government granted monopolies is considered capitalism? If the government didn't give away what wasn't theirs to give, we might actually have some competition, which would surely benefit the consumer.
The US lags because we set up our telcom infrastructure the first, and thus have the most primitive last-mile connections. Throw in some wide distances between communities and you have the situation we have today.
This is Bell Bullshit. The US is a dense urban nation now and the vast majority of people live in cities. The long haul network has lots of dark fiber because our cities are still using copper networks. Ma Bell wants to sell you each bit of data and we are falling further behind despite big promisses and big spending - in short you have paid for a world class network but don't have it. That the US is not first in the world despite having invented the technology and having the money for networks is a true scandal. Most people still use dial up - that's pathetic.
How bad is it? Socialist countries like France, Finland and Sweden are kicking our ass. Germany is right behind us, and half of it's network was made by Stalin. Want to bet on how long it will take Poland, Hungry or freaking Kahzakistan to catch up? You would think the US would be growing faster than other nations but we are not and what little growth we've got is grinding to a halt.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
In a liberarian "utopia" without any form of governmental leash, the robber barons would have nearly unlimited power to defend their turf; they would not need anything as feeble as copyrights and patents (and courts) when their goons could blow up a competitor's factories. Who's to stop them? Certainly not the government, which doesn't exist in this libertarian paradise.
Face it, libertarians. If your dreams came true, you would have freedom all right -- very briefly. Then the Tony Sopranos of the world would take over, and you would be forced to call them Lord. You would have feudalism, not freedom. Is this what you really want?