[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Re: Unwire Portland public meeting tomorrow

glen e. p. ropella gepr at tempusdictum.com
Thu Jul 28 15:00:24 UTC 2005


Jeme A Brelin wrote:
>> Can you borrow the city dump truck because the city paid for it with 
>> taxes?
>> No.
>
> But we absolutely should.

I agree with you, here, Jeme.  This whole "licensing" trend where you 
can't drive without a license, practice medicine without a license, etc. 
is going to eat us alive.  Pretty soon, I'll have to stop programming 
because they'll require a license for that, too.  It's just plain silly.

>> Publically owned does not mean public resource. It never has, and it 
>> probably never will.
> 
> 
> But privately-owned CAN'T mean public resource, so where are we?  If we 
> want public resources, they have to be publicly owned.

But, here, you're both wrong.  This is a false dichotomy:  public <-> 
private.  Everything is publicly owned to some degree (witness eminent 
domain rulings).  And everything is privately owned to some degree (he 
who has the gold rules).

The "private property" ideology, even though I'm fond of it, is just as 
utopian and unrealistic as communism.  Reality and practicality lie 
somewhere in between.

And there's nothing special about bandwidth.  The practical and proper 
solutions lie somewhere in between public and private access/control.

-- 
glen e. p. ropella              =><=                Hail Eris!
H: 503-630-4505                       http://ropella.net/~gepr
M: 503-971-3846                        http://tempusdictum.com



More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list