Steven Alligood wrote: > Government regulation, in general, is bad and looses a little more of > our freedoms each and every time it happens. It eliminates the benefits > of the free market, and costs more money to do so.
Here's the crux of where we disagree. Government regulation is quite often necessary and very beneficial. Can it be abused? Sure. That does not mean that the principle is invalid and that we should toss out the baby with the bathwater. I for one do appreciate that my meat is inspected, gas pumps are tested for accuracy and schools have minimum standards of education. These are things where incentives exist for people to game the system and by regulating them we are all better off, even if the USDA or Department of Education are imperfect. The question then becomes, is the Internet something that needs to be managed or is the market capable of taking care of itself. For the most part yeah it does work OK, but we're seeing a trend away from the traditionally open nature of the Internet and I personally see value in creating incentives to correct that. Note that I didn't say regulation, necessarily. If that's what it takes, that's what it takes. But a government-run Internet monopoly isn't our only option. Corey
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