Arguing Against Government Support For Broadband
from the why? dept
Business Week has a good article arguing against government subsidies for broadband access. It is a popular topic in Washington DC these days - and people talk about the necessity of getting broadband into every home. This article steps back and asks "why?". While I'm a big fan of broadband, I think I agree. The more the government gets involved, the more screwed up things are likely to become. Obviously, things are pretty screwed up now, but these are technology and business model problems that are likely to be worked out (and probably have already started to be worked out). Once the government starts regulating things, it's only likely to hinder new technology developments in broadband.
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If you ate a truckload of vegetables... you'd die.
Or "Broadband is not a matter of health and safety" which implies that the gov should only subsidy things that *are* a matter of health or safety.
But who built the highway system? Did we wait for private companies to kludge together a national highway system? I think there are plenty of examples of 'government subsidies' that are controversially-beneficial.
While I'm also highly skeptical of using taxes to prop up big businesses, I can understand the reasoning behind why public broadband might be beneficial. And I don't think that article addressed any actual issues other than to question the motive behind 'public broadband' and take an extreme position against it. Please, journalists of the world, think a little harder! At least attempt to see the other side's arguments.....
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Re: If you ate a truckload of vegetables... you'd
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