Increasing Broadband Is Good... But The Devil's In The Details
from the boondoggle-central dept
In general, it seems like a good thing that President-elect Obama has identified improved broadband as a key issue to focus on in the new administration. Broadband infrastructure is becoming critical infrastructure to any successfully functioning economy these days, and boosting our overall broadband is a necessity in trying to open up new economic possibilities. However, as with any government-sponsored program, when the government suggests it's ready to open its massive wallet on an initiative, special interests, incumbents and lobbyists see it as a way to get free money from the government. This is the problem in any sort of announced plan to give away money for infrastructure projects. It's not that the infrastructure isn't important. It's incredibly important. It's just that the system is often so corrupt that plenty of taxpayer money is likely to end up in the hands of those who need it the least, and who won't actually spend it to do much on infrastructure. We've seen broadband boondoggles like this in the past -- such as the Universal Service Fund, that really turned into a massive slush fund for telcos to charge more to customers without doing much of anything to provide universal service. I'm hoping that any plan this time around would be different -- and I've heard from multiple different people involved in the Obama transition team who insist that it really is different this time -- but some things are hard to change, and this sort of sucking at the government teat is hard to stop.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: broadband, infrastructure investment, lobbyists
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"I'm hoping that any plan this time around would be different"
It wasn't.
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the answer is simple
get someone else to do it. the telcos are so corrupt that a monkey with brain damage could build more infrastructure for less money than any telco.
if the telcos resist, quadruple their taxes. in fact, quadruple their taxes now, and then quadruple them again if they complain or resist.
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Re: the answer is simple
So is this really your simple answer? Make more people dependent on big business and goverment jobs or government aid when costs go up and small business folds?
Make it so all the small businesses close and everyone shops and works at Walmart?
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Would you like to explain the change Mike?
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Re:
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No Govt Money Needed
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NOLA Homeland Security and Microsoft
In my experience, the only way "average" meets with abnormally high degrees of success repeatedly is through the coordinated tactics normally associated with "the mob." The mere fact that Narus STA 6400 technology was deployed to a company formally dismantled by "antitrust law" was reassembled to be larger than ever before is evidence enough that the major corruption taking place is that of a Machiavellian "the ends justifies the means" hijacking of the American Moral Code of Conduct. Makes Bernie Madoff's rip-off look like child's play
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Re: NOLA Homeland Security and Microsoft
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