ok i have been fowwloing this thread for a while now, there are good aurgments on both sides of the isues. i do realy see one big flaw in your info mation. out of all the research i have done on this (google,talking to the people in the know) ill give you the facts . there are no pink unicons, (i think thre is cholick rivers beuse i seen some guy sing aubot cholic rain and he sounded real convining) in all of the cartoons i have ever sen they are all white. i know this may come to a shock to some of you as it did me. so evey one get there facts stright before posting to this list.
gee and i thought u guys were so smart randy On Jan 19, 2008 3:53 AM, Jay dedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The real world isn't black and white, even if we'd like it to be. > There > > are varying degrees of regulation. Some regulation can be good. > > Stifling regulation is rarely, if ever, good. Pink unicorns may have > > managed to bring us a chocolate river while some regulation existed, but > > you'd be hard-pressed to make a case for regulation on this basis. > > oh man, freemarket discussions. > these are often very frustrating because no one has ever really lived > in a "freemarket" where everything and everyone is equal. > By nature, with examples again and again throughout history, anyone > with power does his best to limit competition. > if there is no "group conscience" (ie smart regulation keeping people > honest), then you have monopolies. > > there is never one rule that you can lay down for ever situation. > as a people, we must look at certain situations and decide how we want to > live. > if it's dog eat dog, fine. Let's at least really all agree on it. > Help me follow this line of thought. > > Let's talk about Comcast charging for bandwidth usage. > Lets say I dont like their service. > In a freemarket, I would change broadband providers. > But Comcast (like most cable companies) are usually the only game in > town because they have signed monopoly agreements with each city...and > then consolidated their power by buying up as many local cable > companies as allowed. > > In the 70's and 80's, US cable companies demanded these monopolies > (with limited regulation) because they were investing heavily and > needed a guaranteed return. They laid down their cables on public > property (streets and sidewalks) to build their networks. They also > argued that you cant have 10 companies tearing up the street to lay > their own cables either. It'd be madness. > > Yes, I could switch to DSL or Satellite internet, but these are still > just 2 more choices. Both of which might not even be available where I > live. > (DSL is not on my street because im too far from the headend. > Satellite is too limited and could never handle the masses) > > So I dont like an unregulated Comcast, but i don't have much choice > but to go with them. > Since they are a private company that are only loyal to private > stockholders expecting large returns on unlimited profits, they do not > have to share any of their data. > Their network is busy? > How busy? at what times? Can we all monitor and have access to this? > Can we discuss alternative solutions rather than me paying out the nose? > No. > We simply trust their reasoning, call it a free market. > Regulation and transparency is bad. > > Cable companies have cried for deregulation for years and gotten it > for the most part. > they said prices would go down. > all evidence shows that cable bills steadily go up each year for one > reason or another. > > how important is the internet to the functioning of our society? > I wonder if we apply this thinking to water and electricity? > where does free market stop? > why cant i create my own electric company, water service, or cable > company? > do we really drop any sense of public spaces and public good? > can I have my own army? > > Jay > > -- > http://jaydedman.com > 917 371 6790 > Professional: http://ryanishungry.com > Personal: http://momentshowing.net > Photos: http://flickr.com/photos/jaydedman/ > Twitter: http://twitter.com/jaydedman > RSS: http://tinyurl.com/yqgdt9 > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]