Obama weighs in on Net Neutrality . . . is automatically wrong

[bilby]

The government provides the roads; the customer chooses which haulage companies to use on those roads.

If the haulage companies were also responsible for road building, would that improve competition? Would you go to DHL to get a new road built to your house if you were unhappy with the service FedEx provided on the FedEx road network? Do you think either company would be happy with being the second to build a road to your house? Would you be OK with having a six hour commute to work, because you are using FedEx roads, and you are required to pull over any time a FedEx vehicle, or a vehicle whose owner has paid a fee to FedEx, wants priority? Assuming that there were two roads to your house, would your commute be improved by using the UPS highway instead - and being required to pull over any time a DHL vehicle, or a vehicle whose owner has paid a fee to DHL, wants priority?

Some things are better left to government. Most infrastructure falls into this category. The Internet is no exception. For the best results, it should have been built by the government, for the people; where it is not yet built, it should now be built by the government, for the people; and where it already exists, it should be nationalised.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/net_neutrality

The Oatmeal

 

[NobleSavage]

This clearly means no net neutrality in the US. If Obama wanted net neutrality, he would oppose it and Republicans would then be for it. But by supporting it, Republicans will now defund the FCC.

 

[Juma]

The government provides the roads; the customer chooses which haulage companies to use on those roads.

If the haulage companies were also responsible for road building, would that improve competition?

If the governement had been responsible for internet access for everyone we still would be listening to the song of the modems.

 

[ksen]

nah

 

[bilby]

The government provides the roads; the customer chooses which haulage companies to use on those roads.

If the haulage companies were also responsible for road building, would that improve competition?

If the governement had been responsible for internet access for everyone we still would be listening to the song of the modems.

Yeah, that's why the government roads are all dirt tracks, and we still have to use a thunder box at the end of the backyard, while we wait for the government sewers.

 

[Juma]

If the governement had been responsible for internet access for everyone we still would be listening to the song of the modems.

Yeah, that's why the government roads are all dirt tracks, and we still have to use a thunder box at the end of the backyard, while we wait for the government sewers.

Almost. Almost nothing has happened in road technology for the last 100 years.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Yeah, that's why the government roads are all dirt tracks, and we still have to use a thunder box at the end of the backyard, while we wait for the government sewers.

Almost. Almost nothing has happened in road technology for the last 100 years.

Um, son, road technology has gotten pretty fancy within the last 20 years. Here in the states we have better materials and coating, better construction, safety features, amazing bridges and interchanges. Sure, the entire network has not been upgraded, but have you lived in a remote country without roads?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Yeah, that's why the government roads are all dirt tracks, and we still have to use a thunder box at the end of the backyard, while we wait for the government sewers.

Almost. Almost nothing has happened in road technology for the last 100 years.

That is news to me. Pavements and subgrade have evolved and continue to evolve. Sure, you won't find any pink asphalt, but that doesn't mean things aren't changing.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Good for Obama. Too bad he has no power over this. Maybe that's why he feels he can speak his mind this time instead of caving?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Good for Obama. Too bad he has no power over this. Maybe that's why he feels he can speak his mind this time instead of caving?

Maybe, maybe not. The FCC didn't have authority to do net neutrality as it was. Treating it as a utility could change that and not require action from a useless Congress.

 

[Juma]

Almost. Almost nothing has happened in road technology for the last 100 years.

Um, son, road technology has gotten pretty fancy within the last 20 years. Here in the states we have better materials and coating, better construction, safety features, amazing bridges and interchanges. Sure, the entire network has not been upgraded, but have you lived in a remote country without roads?

Not impressed. Throughput, speed and cosy, which is what really counts, has not changed much.

 

[bilby]

Um, son, road technology has gotten pretty fancy within the last 20 years. Here in the states we have better materials and coating, better construction, safety features, amazing bridges and interchanges. Sure, the entire network has not been upgraded, but have you lived in a remote country without roads?

Not impressed. Throughput, speed and cosy, which is what really counts, has not changed much.

Nonsense. The first 'freeway' or 'motorway' style roads (the German autobahns) were built less than 80 years ago and were a huge improvement on previous road systems. Those trunk roads built more recently have higher capacities, and are far safer to use at far higher speeds than the roads that went before them. Local roads are more durable and safer than ever before. And the cost per lane km of building roads, local or trunk, adjusted for inflation, has fallen dramatically in that time, as has the number of labour hours per lane km required for both construction and maintenance.

 

[dismal]

Good for Obama. Too bad he has no power over this. Maybe that's why he feels he can speak his mind this time instead of caving?

Maybe, maybe not. The FCC didn't have authority to do net neutrality as it was. Treating it as a utility could change that and not require action from a useless Congress.

And you are suggesting Obama is the absolute czar of deciding things are utilities?

 

[Togo]

Not impressed. Throughput, speed and cosy, which is what really counts, has not changed much.

Nonsense. The first 'freeway' or 'motorway' style roads (the German autobahns) were built less than 80 years ago and were a huge improvement on previous road systems. Those trunk roads built more recently have higher capacities, and are far safer to use at far higher speeds than the roads that went before them. Local roads are more durable and safer than ever before. And the cost per lane km of building roads, local or trunk, adjusted for inflation, has fallen dramatically in that time, as has the number of labour hours per lane km required for both construction and maintenance.

Since then they've also become safer and faster, with a textured surface to increase the grip of tyres on the road and to ensure that rough protrusions poke out above a film of water, better drained and illuminated with cat's eye technology, vastly imrpoved lighting, and so. They're also more durable - roads used to turn to tar in very hot weather.

The one place you can still find some of the primative, cracking, unsafe, slow roads that we used to have is in large factory complexes. That's because they aren't government roads, but private installations not for use by the general public.

 

[arkirk]

When we begin to understand that we are being besieged by a flock of corporate raiders and can't do anything about it we start to complain. The problem with the FCC is that its members are captives of these same corporate powers and they are driven by fear, the question becomes who is big enough and bad enough to make them fear otherwise. I think Obama's a wimp and a corporatist and is just saying this stuff to make people think he is "working on it." That was one of Reagan's notable quotes..."We're working on it." Nothing more said.

Obama has been entirely too polite with the corporate hooligans who want to rule it all. Don't get mad at anybody but yourself if you insist on capitalism running everything. This is what you get. Inaction on issues affecting the working class and instant action including hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts for people with giant credit cards (campaign support). I think it was said just to KEEP THE MASSES QUIET...at least not blaming the Obomber.

 

[Jarhyn]

It's got nothing to do with people 'deciding' it is a utility, and everything to do with what the service is. Is it reliant upon a dedicated network of infrastructural installations? Yes? Are those installations reliant upon municipal leeway to the use or crossing of public land? Yes? Can any person with a plan ad-hoc decide to install such a network without need for onerous government approval of the network? No? Then it's a fucking utility.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Maybe, maybe not. The FCC didn't have authority to do net neutrality as it was. Treating it as a utility could change that and not require action from a useless Congress.

And you are suggesting Obama is the absolute czar of deciding things are utilities?

Are you suggesting that czar's in the US Government have any actual authority?

 

[dismal]

And you are suggesting Obama is the absolute czar of deciding things are utilities?

Are you suggesting that czar's in the US Government have any actual authority?

I'm suggesting absolute czars have absolute authority over things they are czar of.

 

[Jarhyn]

Are you suggesting that czar's in the US Government have any actual authority?

I'm suggesting absolute czars have absolute authority over things they are czar of.

No, you are suggesting that the utility-ness of a thing is not a function of whether it's infrastructure requires municipal approval to install, and whether a municipitu can support or approve multiple such infrastructures.

The regulation applied to a thing, to be just, must reflect some underlying principal which serves the public welfare, and if the public welfare would be served by a regulation, it is unjust to not implement it.

To that end Obama is not making a declaration, he's merely making an observation of a transcendent fact: broadband networks are utilities and ought be regulated as such.