Slashdot Mirror
More Than 750 American Communities Have Built Their Own Internet Networks (vice.com)
Jason Koebler shares a report from Motherboard: According to a freshly updated map of community-owned networks, more than 750 communities across the United States have embraced operating their own broadband network, are served by local rural electric cooperatives, or have made at least some portion of a local fiber network publicly available. The map was created by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that advocates for local economies. The Institute's latest update indicates that there's now 55 municipal networks serving 108 communities with a publicly owned fiber-to-the-home internet network. 76 communities now offer access to a locally owned cable network reaching most or all of the community, and more than 258 communities are now served by a rural electric cooperative. Many more communities could expand their local offerings according to the group's data. 197 communities already have some publicly owned fiber service available to parts of the community, while more than 120 communities have publicly-owned dark (unused) fiber available for use by local residences and local area businesses. The group's map also highlights which states have erected legislative barriers to hamper these local efforts and explains what these laws actually do.
It's hosted on a community network, so you can only expect so much.
Communists must always use the technologies developed by capitalists.
The Internet was created by the government, so it was the other way around in this case.
Instead of just using labels like "communist" and "capitalist", you should learn about evidence based reasoning. Look at the actual results. For most things, capitalism works better. For some things, such as healthcare, where transparency is absent, government run systems tend to work better and cost less.
For Internet service, people tend to be happier with municipal systems rather than private monopolies. So maybe that is a better way to go. What is important is the results.
that as some ort of socialism, but so few people see municipal roads as such. Yet both are there for a similar reason when market forces just do not work...
ShanghaiBill makes an important point: there are some things the free-market does better, and there are some things that the government does better. People often forget that the public enables the private. Government built infrastructure keeps the economy going. Roads, utilities, and the banking system allow commerce to happen generally smoothly.
When it comes to health care, the government run systems of every other developed country provide better results at much lower cost than what we get in the U.S.
One final point. I do think this thread should be referring to communism. Instead, I think they mean socialism. Even then, you can have government run systems that do not use socialism. For example, England's single-payer health-care system is socialistic while Canada's single-payer system is not. Both get better results than the U.S. at much lower cost.
This isn't about free market, or communism, or capitalism at all. It's about communities using their own resources for infrastructure and what *should be* a common utility. If things ran they way they should, the easements, right-of-ways, the utility poles, should be owned by the municipal governments and leased to those that can show they can sustain the rent, not damage other people's stuff, and be relied on when there's damage from storms, etc.
There are easements granted and right-of-ways that I as a property owner granted to utilities. Sadly, this was done by prior owners, who benefited from the fees. But then one of the utilities changed the nature of the easement, and low and behold, I could charge them once again.
Municipalities should control their infrastructure, not some lawyer for Verizon, AT&T, etc etc. This has zero to do with communism. It has to do with the most important common denominator for most people: community, not some hackneyed description of an obtuse financial model or governmental construct.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Communism and socialism work great -- ON PAPER. You mix actual humans into it? It becomes a shit-show of corruption.
Capitalism isn't much better, really. Ideally, everyone plays above-board, observes the Social Contract (i.e., doesn't intentionally fuck everyone over just for sake of profit), and society prospers. Unfortunately, much like the microbiome in your gut, things only work really work well when they stay in balance.
Sadly, capitalism here in these United States is grossly out of balance. Corporatism is a real Thing, they have too much power and sway in everything, especially our government (which should be above and immune to such things), and to make matters even worse we now have a sitting President (such as he is, LOL) that's working like the damned to take away what little control there still is over them.
How this pertains to the Internet, is Ajit Pai and his bald-faced pandering to corporate interests, and the American public be damned. Thus we have more and more municipalities looking to do an end-run around shitty corporations like Comcast/Xfinity and AT&T.
Fact of the matter is, the Internet is now too important and integrated into everything to call a 'boutique' or 'luxury' service; it must, sooner (preferable) or later, be deemed a public utility, with all that implies.
That's not how evidence works. You've got it backward.
In informal settings it's not unusual to reference relatively uncontested positions without providing evidence each time.
That the US has poorer outcomes per person per dollar is well known. Most other OECD countries have similar health outcomes for similar per person expenditure and have similar levels of government involvement in healthcare. Comparing the US to these countries supports the hypothesis that "government run systems tend to work better and cost less".
To the extent that "government run systems tend to work better and cost less" is accepted as true, then asking that an example that is offered that contradicts this be elaborated _is_ how evidence works.
If you don't consider that "government run systems tend to work better and cost less" is true or well supported, would you please say so so we can have a discussion around that. Picking points on form doesn't really add anything, here.
...have always been a lot more socialist than they'd like to admit. Once you remove the labels and just ask about principles and policies directly, most Americans exhibit quite strong socialist tendencies. This is one of many reasons why worker-owned and community-based businesses, which are inherently democratic, have always been popular and are getting more so as the government increasingly fails to protect its citizens from predatory corporations.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.