[PLUG] A Broadband Beat-Down - article from NY Times

Ronald Chmara ron at Opus1.COM
Sun Jun 26 10:40:30 UTC 2005


On Jun 26, 2005, at 1:26 AM, Jim Karlock wrote:
> At 08:45 PM 6/25/2005 , you wrote:
>> On Jun 25, 2005, at 8:40 PM, AthlonRob wrote:
>>> Mel Andres wrote:
>>>> Says Japan has more broadband, at lower prices, and 16 times the 
>>>> speed.
>>>> Blames Bush administration for not keeping up.
>>> Because, of course it's the government's job to furnish everybody 
>>> with
>>> broadband....
>> Well, large scale infrastructure is generally a government-led 
>> business enterprise... roads,
> It didn't used to be. A lot of roads were originally toll, like most 
> of the ferry roads in Portland. There are still privately owned and 
> operated turnpikes in the east.

Yes. The premise of a corporation, when first instituted, was a 
publicly owned group, acting as a private entity, for the common good.

>>  utilities,
> Power and phone are highly regulated, but private sector companies 
> financed, built and now operates them.

Depends on the government. Some democracies have state run utilities, 
some went private. Other forms of government went various directions.

See California's recent energy debacle for an example of possible 
problems with privatization in a capitalist democracy...

>> etc. Things that are for the benefit of the people as a whole, 
>> without direct profit motive tangling up the works.
> Of course, profit motive combined with competition, which forces 
> products to continuously get better,

This might be a logical fallacy. Profit motive drives companies to be 
more profitable than their competition.

Nothing more.

"More profitable" is not always the same thing as a better product. 
Sometimes, a *worse* product is more profitable.

If profit motive and competition are ultimate goals, I'm not sure this 
discussion belongs on a Linux UG. Bill Gates makes much more per diem 
than most Linux and *nix developers, so, do the windows developers make 
better products? Even in aggregate?

>  has given us the highest standard of living in the world.

I suppose that would depend on one's metrics. The US does not have:
The best education system.
The best infant mortality rate.
The best healthcare system.
The best housing system.
(etc.)

All countries have a blend of good and bad, one's individually weighted 
metrics determine standard of living. According to the UN, the US ranks 
not at number one, two, or even three.

*shrug*

I guess it depends on your metrics.

> Government seldom leads, instead it tends to hop on bandwagons as they 
> are coming to fruition.

I suppose this depends on the government. Too bad there was no such 
thing as DARPA, ARPA, and ARPAnet, and the government had to hop on the 
"interconnected network bandwagon" after private companies had created 
it. :)

>  No government lead the discovery of electricity, the telegraph, 
> telephone, FAX, television. (Later government started getting into 
> these things.)

Yes, yes, yes, no, no.

You are also conflating invention with deployment. Private industry 
lacks the resources needed to create right-of-way for wires, or 
ownership of "the commons" for such things as radio bandwidth. 
Government had the resources.

-Bop
--
Ronin Professional Consulting LLC
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Portland, OR 97218
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