Slashdot Mirror
Universal Broadband Plan Calls For $44 Billion
Andy King writes "The new Obama administration has pledged to deploy next-generation broadband to every community in America, but have offered few specifics. The Free Press have published a specific plan to accomplish broadband for all." I'm not sure which will be the bigger headache when my internet breaks: waiting in line at the new government internet office, or waiting on hold for cable tech support.
Wow Obama, you've screwed up more than I thought you would have. If there is something we have learned about government, big businesses and technology is they don't mix. Just look at the old AT&T, the government gave them money and allowed them to "modernize" the USA and then proceed to abuse their monopoly. Then take that same thing and do it to "connect" the USA, and we now have ISPs that are abusive monopolies. Now we are going to do that again to "better connect" the USA and we are going to either end up in FCC tyrannical censorship land, or more than likely into yet another economy-damaging, money-wasting, taxpayer-funded monopoly.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Oh, whew, it's about time we can have broadband access run with all the competence and efficiency of a government program!
.
We'll see how useful having a 40Bil network is...
Knowing the federal gov't, which never creates nor maintains, BUT exploits. It may look good on paper, I have a bad feeling about this.
thats just another excuse you americans use to excuse your inaction. 'neither democrats nor republicans are any good' -> nonsense. upon any given two groups, there is always one that is more suitable for the purpose at hand.
sue your senators, demand from your senators. choose whichever is more accommodating for people's wishes. start from somewhere. 'hey a third party is gonna co...' -> HOW do you know that third party is not going to be 'the 3rd party', if you are SO sure that the first two are totally useless ? what if it happens to be just another ?
make use of what you have. push forward.
Read radical news here
These systems work well only in your imagination. I live in one of these countries with which you think government is doing a good job and I also work in that very field. Believe me, people will always be looking for their self interest and "some" will always get what they want even if it means everyone else is worse off. This includes the physicians, administrators, and "Government Officials". When government is in control, and resources for the system are only provided by government, the patient will always take a back seat to the self interest of the physicians and administrators and politicians.
my dear friend, there has been and there will be corruption in ANY society, in diminishing levels, even closing on to an utopia.
we have invented judiciary, laws, we have invented democracy. none of these are perfect and they harbor corruption.
but the magic is, these are the ones that provide for the LEAST corruption. democracy beats feudalism by a long shot, makes it harder to be corrupted, modern legal system beats any previous justice understanding by a long shot, and makes it more just to live in.
you cant just ditch something because it is imperfect.
When private sector is under control, even if physicians and administrators are seeking their self interest, their enterprise will fail if it is not aligned with that of the patient, and the patient now has the option to go to another practice or hospital.
you talk like greenspan. who, in front of senate committee, sheepishly admitted that he 'couldnt understand why corporations didnt regulate themselves'.
because they WONT.
if you let a lawless, unregulated, no alternative environment to be created out of the belief that is 'private does it better', private corporations will fight it in between themselves, establish a pecking order in between themselves, and then proceed to protect THEIR rights via the power they wield.
a private corporation's interest is majority shareholders' interest. the shareholders' numbers of any corporation can NEVER be compared to any considerable majority in any given country - they are ALWAYS in minority in terms of numbers, so they never encompass many people.
even, in the case of credit crunch, shareholders' interest can be even discarded for self profit by those who actually run those corporations. without blinking.
there can be no delusion like 'patients' interests', as we can see from the united states healthcare system. they skip anything that is unprofitable through contract juggling, using power of law because bigger money means larger lawyer army and victory, and employ more lobbyists than congressmen to pass out laws in their interest, but to the detriment of public. the people.
It amazes me how many people want to give more power to governments thinking that they can make things better. I would agree with that if you can guarantee that we will always get competent officials who are always looking for interest of their community. Free markets, even with all its corruption, are better than any system or institution the government would put in place. Since the selfish organizations can roll over and die if they dont perform well. Whereas with government institutions ... we are stuck with them for life. They are worse than monopolies!.
If many people think highly of a certain way of running a business, a healthcare system, an ISP or that a company is not offering a good enough service . Then why not get together in this free market, and try to establish a company that follows your ideals and see how competitive it is. If your ideals are good enough for their time, it will be profitable and investors would be lined up. If not, then the rest of us would not be stuck with it.
The system works (free market), we just have to use it. There have to be new entrants in the market for it to function properly. Inviting government to the market is lik
Read radical news here