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End of Net Neutrality


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5 minutes ago, Vizsla1 said:

So if I am reading the majority here correctly, you (majority) believe the government always knows best. Apparently, you have not been watching as cable TV (a highly regulated and government controlled entity) dies a slow death, because the internet is much cheaper, and with more options to watch programs on! Why do you think the government wants control of the internet? It's because they are losing control over what you watch! (Remember, the Obama Care was to bring costs down, you can keep your dr..it was about control) They try to sell it as if its good for you, which is how they sell everything that gives them more control over your life!

 

My uncle was a Telecom Engineer of over 30 years, having lived through the debacle of the wireless roll out courtesy of the FCC, I got to see the FCC's ineptitude up close and personal. The FCC's indecision and bungling delayed the introduction of cellular technology by 40 years and smart phone technology by 10 years. 

 

The USA is the world leader in the development of internet technology; precisely because it has been relatively unfettered by federal and state regulation.

You do not understand this issue. 

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People have a very funny idea of "government regulations." Everything has rules surrounding it. Here the rule is now that telecom corperations can essentially gouge the consumers. Mostly small business who can't compete monetarily with large corperations for the best internet packages. The "regulation" known as Net Neutrality was a rule that protected the consumer and kept the status quo of all ISPs being treated equally. There will always be a regulation. The question is, who do these regulations benefit? 

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9 minutes ago, Vizsla1 said:

So if I am reading the majority here correctly

 

You aren't.

 

As Nebfanatic said, you clearly do not understand this issue.

 

10 minutes ago, Vizsla1 said:

Why do you think the government wants control of the internet? It's because they are losing control over what you watch! (Remember, the Obama Care was to bring costs down, you can keep your dr..it was about control) They try to sell it as if its good for you, which is how they sell everything that gives them more control over your life!

 

We elect the government.  We do not elect business owners.  Those business owners are there to generate a profit - off us.  The government is there to serve us.  These tinfoil hat "the gubment is outta get us!" posts don't encourage people to think highly of the opinions expressed.

 

If we don't like our elected officials, we can vote for a new one next election.  If we don't like our cable provider, we likely have no choice in the matter because they have established monopolies throughout the country. 

 

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The free market only provides protections when there's competition.  Without regulations, without competition, there is nothing stopping these companies from trashing the internet to generate a profit.

 

The fact that consumers didn't request this repeal - the telecoms did - should tell us who the repeal benefits.  Informed consumers have been fighting the telecoms on this since the telecoms started this campaign.

 

Corrupt Republicans voted this in.  The Fox propaganda machine has spread misinformation in support of their Republican and business allies.  Stop listening to them.

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This is simple...

 

Consumers:  We all want the cheapest price we can get...for any product or service

Business Owner:  We all want to make the most money that we can.

 

I used to run a 3 on 3 basketball tourney...I charged 40 dollars per team.  After a few years I realized I could get 100 dollars per team.  So I started doing that...until a few other places all of a sudden had the same idea I did and there was competition for teams.  Things changed a bit for me after that because of that competition.  

 

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6 minutes ago, teachercd said:

This is simple...

 

Consumers:  We all want the cheapest price we can get...for any product or service

Business Owner:  We all want to make the most money that we can.

 

I used to run a 3 on 3 basketball tourney...I charged 40 dollars per team.  After a few years I realized I could get 100 dollars per team.  So I started doing that...until a few other places all of a sudden had the same idea I did and there was competition for teams.  Things changed a bit for me after that because of that competition.  

 

Sounds like free market was taking over. If only you had established a monopoly on the 3 on 3 game in your area. Or you could have had a few types of tournaments. One where the gym they play in had no lights and another where for just $25 more, you got the lights turned on.

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2 minutes ago, Mike Mcdee said:

Sounds like free market was taking over. If only you had established a monopoly on the 3 on 3 game in your area. Or you could have had a few types of tournaments. One where the gym they play in had no lights and another where for just $25 more, you got the lights turned on.

Ha!  I love it!  Trust me, I already made it as bare bones as possible.  Got the gym for free...no refs, they called their own fouls...I did give T-shirts to the winning team.

 

No lights!  I should have done that.  

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3 hours ago, Nebfanatic said:

You do not understand this issue. 

Government regulations are bad. Net neutrality is a regulation. Therefore net neutrality is bad.

 

That's essentially the argument. Then they talk about the free market as if the last mile into our homes isn't a billion dollar problem that even Google/Alphabet with their VERY deep pockets hasn't had trouble with.

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8 minutes ago, Whistlebritches said:

That's essentially the argument. Then they talk about the free market as if the last mile into our homes isn't a billion dollar problem that even Google/Alphabet with their VERY deep pockets hasn't had trouble with.

 

And there's no mention of the billions of dollars taxpayers have given to these telecoms to upgrade the networks, which instead the telecoms pocketed.

 

Here's a good thread about this, with the top comments from the author of three books on this subject.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c5e97/eli5_how_were_isps_able_to_pocket_the_200_billion/

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3 hours ago, teachercd said:

This is simple...

 

Consumers:  We all want the cheapest price we can get...for any product or service

Business Owner:  We all want to make the most money that we can.

 

I used to run a 3 on 3 basketball tourney...I charged 40 dollars per team.  After a few years I realized I could get 100 dollars per team.  So I started doing that...until a few other places all of a sudden had the same idea I did and there was competition for teams.  Things changed a bit for me after that because of that competition.  

 

You really  should have put an ad on TV/social media saying the other tourney directors were crooked, cheaters, Muslims, immigrants, etc to run them out of business,  Crush your competition, monopolize your area, then you could charge $400 a team. Perfect :thumbs

Edited by Big Red 40
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Ah, the unregulated, free market.  Trump's utopia, in his favorite pet project, the Coal Industry. 

 

Trump removed some Obama-era regulations on coal to save the coal industry.  A boon for workers! Hooray, we've saved the coal industry!

 

Right?

 

U.S. Coal Mine Deaths Rise After Record-Low 2016

 

U.S. coal mines recorded 15 workplace deaths in 2017 only a year after they hit a record low, according to Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) data released on Tuesday.

 

In 2016, just nine deaths occurred in U.S. coal mines.

 

West Virginia mines saw eight deaths, Kentucky had two and one each occurred at mines in Alabama, Colorado, Montana, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

 

West Virginia, the site of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster that killed 29 miners, has led the nation in mining deaths for six of the past eight years.

 

According to The Associated Press:

Quote

 

"Eight coal mining deaths this year involved hauling vehicles and two others involved machinery. None were attributed to an explosion of gas or dust, which was to blame for the Upper Big Branch disaster.

 

According to MSHA data, seven of the eight U.S. coal mining fatalities in the first half of 2017 involved miners with one year or less experience at the mine, and six involved miners with one year or less experience on the job. In June, MSHA announced an initiative focusing on less experienced miners, including improved mine operators' training programs."

 

 

In September, President Trump's appointee to head the MSHA, David Zatezalo, the former mining company executive, was criticized for allegedly approving the firing of a worker who complained about safety violations. However, most of the mine fatalities occurred before Zatezalo took over MSHA.

 

The president has been a vocal proponent of the coal industry and campaigned on a promise to bring back coal jobs.

 

According to StateImpact, a reporting project of NPR member stations, coal production was up about 8 percent last year, but still way down from where it was only a few years ago.

 

StateImpact reports:

Quote

 

"The number of U.S. coal miners fell from 90,000 in 2012 to 50,000 in 2016, but the industry has added around 2,000 jobs so far this year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

And the Department of Energy says coal demand will remain more or less flat the next couple of years."

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, dudeguyy said:

I've never understood why libertarians and conservatives hate the former but are OK with the latter.

 

My theory - because people are susceptible to advertising. The government doesn't advertise on its own behalf, but corporations do.  People watch those ads without skepticism, and absorb the propaganda being sent their way.

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56 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

My theory - because people are susceptible to advertising. The government doesn't advertise on its own behalf, but corporations do.  People watch those ads without skepticism, and absorb the propaganda being sent their way.

 

 

No......I think it's because they receive a pay check from the(a) corporation and always seem to be paying money to the government.

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I think it's the fundamental appeal. Our national myth is all about individual freedom obtained via overthrow of tyranny, and large government is tyranny. We interpret a suspicion of government as American pride, and so the more of that the better.

 

The only thing is when this runs up against reality. Yes, the government can perpetrate tyranny. But so can the private sector. In fact, this should be one the most important functions of our collective government: to provide for defense, not just to safeguard our lives against foreign militaries but to safeguard our freedoms against unrestrained actors, public or private, who would dominate us if they could.

 

The conservative dream is in a lot of ways an insistence that the private sector can do things better, and so to suffocate the public sector as a way of proving it. 

 

It's the kind of fairy tale that you need, I guess, to make sure people keep conflating "personal freedom" with "corporate freedom". To have people fool themselves into thinking they are "pro-market" when they are really "pro-big corporations", who want market dominance, not competition.

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