On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 10:00:58PM -0500, Michael Halcrow wrote: > On Fri, Jul 16, 2004 at 09:43:57PM -0600, Josh Jeppson wrote: > > ZDNet has an article about "municipally owned high-speed > > communications services" in Utah. Specifically iProvo and Utopia. > > The government has no business taxing its citizens and using the > funds to compete unfairly against private high-speed network > providers. Way to monkey wrench the economy, Provo! While you're > at it, make sure Orrin Hatch doesn't forget to legislate your shiny > new network to death. From the looks of it, this whole ``free > market'' thing must be getting quite annoying for Utah's > constituents.
If anything, the responses to this message have revealed to me how little difference there is any more between the Democratic and the Republican parties as far as economic policy go (assuming that most of the responses came from Utah Republicans). (Yes, that's a troll.) They are equally prideful in their assumptions that they are smart enough to manipulate the free market economy for an optimal result. It's the simplistic "Oh, look - there's something we all want^H^H^H^Hneed! The free market hasn't filled in the gaps yet, so something must be wrong. Well, let's hurry it up, then! Just tax everyone and roll out our own solution to the 'problem'!" It looks great on politicians' dossiers. It gives everyone a good feeling that they're "doing something." Money disappears into the vortex of government run amok, and the cycle continues... Telecommunications infrastructure does not deserve public utility status. With the advent of wireless technology, there is no real barrier to the free market providing a high-speed digital network solution; at this point, providers need to figure out now how to get the right service to the people at the right price. The fact that it is not available for you means that it *costs too much* for the market to bear. By invoking the government to create it for you, you are deciding that if your community will not pay for it out of their own free will and choice, at the current market price, they will instead be forced to pay for it out of what is garnished from their paychecks. This is selfish. You do not have some kind of fundamental, God-given right to high speed Internet access to your house in the boonies. And I am certainly not obligated to help subsidize such a connection out to your house. I would be bothered a lot more by iProvo if I weren't Texan. :-) But as they say, injustice anywhere... The free market will produce a better solution than the government ever can, especially for telecommunications infrastructures. If the better solution is that this high-speed network has to wait a few years, then that is better than siphoning funds out of the economy now to dump into another pork barrel project. Those in power will argue about how this new infrastructure will draw new business into the region and boost the economy. The boost to the economy can *never* match the expense dumped into running fiber optic everywhere. Of course, this is convenient for the politicians involved, since they only need to demonstrate a correlation between iProvo and an increase in business, and they win - because, as everyone knows, correlation equals causation! In reality, the very best thing that Provo could do for the economy is to save the money and reduce taxes accordingly, so the businesses and citizens can decide for themselves what they do and do not want to spend their hard-earned money on. A high-speed network is *not* a basic necessity for human survival, like water (some of you talk as if you think this network just *has* to exist, one way or another; you need a serious shift in perspective). The government has *no* business taxing its citizens to provide it. If there is currently a monopoly situation, fine - you need to accept that the government cannot effectively fix it. Every time it tries, it is always too little, too late. Given a little time and some advances in technology, the free market will find a solution. It always does. The solution to AT&T was Sprint. The solution to Microsoft is Free Software. I cannot say exactly what the solution to Comcast/Qwest will be, but the market is a heck of a lot smarter than I am. The government's job is to stay out of the way while private industry invents the right product at the right price. Mike P.S. - I apologize for the rant, but I come from a family of economics professors, and I get annoyed when people seem to forget things like history and Econ 110.
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