Is "Net Neutrality" a Scam?

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:32:24 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Daniel Morin at Reality Zone - why you should oppose "net neutrality", if you believe in liberty and want a better internet. [grabbe]

Corporations live to make money, the same as individuals work to earn their living. There is nothing sinful about making money, as long as the money received comes from voluntary exchange rather than taken by force, theft, or extortion. In a free-market economy, corporation must serve the people in order to remain in business. If the corporation does not sell anything useful to the population, it won't have any customers, therefore no income, and will go out of business. In a free-market economy, big corporate earnings can only be achieved by having many customers purchasing goods and services. The good news is you have much more control over your wallet when you subscribe to Internet services than you have with the money you send to politicians. ISPs want your money badly. No ISP will dare to limit your access to a few selected websites, risking to lose a valuable customer to a competitor.

On the other hand, government takes your money by force (taxes) and by theft (inflation). The more money the government has, the more power it has over corporations in need of money. Since corporations want to maximize their profits, they will use the easiest possible way. Behemoth corporations find it easier to lobby the government for privileges (regulations) and handouts (subsidies), than by working hard and selling goods and services to customers. Corporations are loyal to their customers, and when the government is the corporation's biggest customer, the corporation stops serving the people and starts serving the government. Corruption becomes irresistible. To secure the loyalty of its customer (the government), the corporation will hire (bribe) politicians and bureaucrats to secure its income and obstruct competition with new regulations. This is how corporations gain control of the government. The root of the problem is giving our money to the government.

...

Free economy advocates should not call for regulations. ISPs have the right to limit bandwidth to their customers. The debate is not about ISPs blocking websites; it is about ISPs giving higher bandwidth to chosen websites for high-quality video. Likewise, ISPs may wish sell subscriptions to access to web channels, the same as Cable Television. The good news is Internet access will be faster, so the 'slower websites' will still be faster than what we have today.

Add comment Edit post Add post