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Originally Posted by constitutionalist
Precisely why we don't want the government essentially running healthcare, the internet, or cellcos. It creates a quasi- or official monopoly that stagnates the industry more than anything else. Just look at the post office and the DMV, or the quasi-private Bell monopoly of most of the 20th Century.
I think the answer here is to create a dues-paying consumers union that has the ability to get millions of members to act in unison and can pool resources to legally represent customers being unfairly treated in court. Government will not only over-regulate the industry, it will do so slowly and will always be responding to yesterday's issues, leaving open loopholes that are exploited by the industry's lawyers to their advantage (and it doesn't hurt that industry lawyers and execs are friends of those who'd write the regulations, anyway). In other words, a government solution that fails to address consumer interests is a foregone conclusion. Only we have the power and ability to properly look after our own interests.
Screw the government.
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I understand where you're coming from, but... You're crazy if you think it's easier to corrupt a government (friends of the industry drafting the regulations) than it is to corrupt a union president.
To corrup the government, there would have to be lots of reps and senators on the payroll (which I'm not saying there aren't already, just that it would be required). To corrupt a union, they would only need 1 union president on the payroll.
I don't think the government needs ot be regulating our internet. But I do think the government needs to tell all the ISP's that they can't regulate our internet either.
Remember- Comcast was actually busted (after initially denying it) for slowing and blocking bit torrent traffic. This was primarily directed at Directv customers trying to use their Directv On Demand service. Comcast internet customers were beiong lied to, saying Comcast doesn't slow or block any traffic, and the blame was placed with Directv. Directv On Demand customers were left thinking Directv's service sucked, and Comcast was welcoming them in with open arms to the Comcast cable tv service with their own On Demand.
When ISP's start doing that kind of crap, yes, the government has to step in. And this isn't a hypothetical worse case scenario, this happened already.