Journal zogger's Journal: cars, gas and comcast 11
(another rambling rant, last for today, I am more whipped than usual*)
Didja ever notice that car companies are not also oil and gasoline sellers? You see no "chevy quikee marts" or "ford gas, beer and butts"? The reason for this is simple, it would lead to severe monopoly abuse to the consumer.
But, we have the same situation with ISPs and now them being content providers as well, or wanting to be. Why is this even allowed? Comcast has billions in spare change to try and buy more content, then they ship it to you on their cable lines. When it was JUST that...well..sorta all right I guess, but now they are an ISP as well, as much as anything else. The same with ATT and "triple play" service. And the telcos locking down their phones and charging "extra" for this or that, the functionality that was there in the first place, again, why is this allowed?
We should have a clear delineation between the pipes, and stuff that goes through the pipes, (wired and wireless pipes, all of them) and companies should not be allowed to be both. Either be an ISP
Comcast has billion$ in spare change to go buy more content according to the newz, and dozen$ to upgrade their infrastructure. Same with all of them. But cable franchises are just horrid, they really take the prize there because in most areas they have been granted local monopoly positions as well. I remember WAY back in the day going to the local commission hearing on the first proposed cable provider in our area. They've been lying since day one. First lie was "you'll be paying for the content directly, so there will be no commercials in the shows". Really, I heard that from some cable doofus at the hearing. How long did that last?
Cellphones and web browsing, no, I don't want to buy ringtones from you, or the sportscores, or pay you for stock tickers or the latest hollywood gossip. And no, you already get paid twice for your bandwith anyway, you don't need a third tier of premiums because of such lame claims as "google is riding on our backs and not paying us!". Sorry, google pays for their bandwith, we searchers on google pay for ours, if two payments, one from each end ain't enough..you're doing something wrong, or just being greedy, or both. No, I don't want to subscribe to soap opera daily, thanks. No, I think you throttling some VOIP is restraint of trade..... whoops, incoming text, BRB..'
Anyway, outtabealaw. Content provider, or dumb pipe, pick one as your business. And no more local monopolies.
*been repairing rather extensive flood damage from last saturday's downpour that wiped out a lot of fencing and a big cross creek barricade thing I built from scratch last summer. As luck would have it, we had one of those once in a generation rains that flashflooded our creek here, many feet above any other previous high water mark I have ever seen. Boss said he has seen it come close to that just twice in his 30 years here, but not near this bad. Just inundated fences on both sides of the creek, plus the barricade, with logs and mud and junk, smashed them flat. What...fun.... It's been a tiresome week digging that crap out and salvaging and repairing. Getting close to being finished though, maybe three -four more days and I'll be done.
I *did* get interesting "marine salvage" though (not counting a lot of just pure trash, like big truck tires in the middle of the field, a lot of old cans and plastic bottles, a busted plastic file cabinet, all sorts of oddball stuff, etc), found a fully functional BMX bike, still quite good after washing the mud off. No idea where it started out at, but I found it jammed half way down the creek from the road, No, no reports of lost kids either, but I did ride the thing a little, musta been a teenager owned it because it fits me OK, seat height and everything.
no and yes (Score:1)
Local monopolies for cable companies brought affordable broadband to the masses, sooner (without them no company would've risked that initial expensive outlay of fiber). As long as there is healthy competition from satellite providers, and like in my area where you can move to another section of town to get a different cable provider, I'm mostly okay with it. But I totally agree about business niches that are conflicts of interest. Another example is GE owning the NBC networks. Why on earth would we allow a
different fundings (Score:1)
...I have seen that idea before, and yes it has some merit to it. Insurance companies are in the business of NOT paying claims, or lowballing them as much as possible. To get real cures and generic drugs etc is of interest to them. Long term treatments that are expensive and don't really work just cost them a ton of money and make them look for ways to deny coverage or not even offer it.
Another idea I like is an x prize combined with a lottery for real CURES for this or that. A daily national lottery with h
Re: (Score:1)
Heh, did you get that idea from the Michael J. Fox movie "Doc Hollywood"? A good one. Advertise for a student to move there after graduation, or better yet offer the scholarship locally, to someone more likely to have wanted to stay there anyways. Build 'em the nicest house in town. Right next door to the office. The church I grew up in bought a house right next door to the church grounds for whoever was the pastor at any given time, and it wasn't a mansion, but it was darn convenient, giving him zero housi
Nope (Score:1)
Never saw that movie. I've posted before about these medical funding ideas though. The small town GP who doesn't charge a real arm and leg is sorely needed in this nation. The rural areas are losing doctors fast, like daily.
I think of what they handed those casino banker gangsters and where that loot could have been better put and...dang I get annoyed. Just think, for the same exact amount, one to two thousand different BILLION dollar projects could have been funded, pure R and D, infrastructure repair, cre
Re: (Score:1)
There might already be something where govt.-funded research, or maybe certain kinds or in certain cases, in effect becomes public domain. Where I used to work they did digitizing of tissue samples on slides, and licensed for free from Lawrence Livermore Labs I think it was some teachable pattern recognition technology, to search for cancerous cells. My boss told me at the time that they got this because it was the fruits of taxpayer-paid R&D, so they're encouraged to let it trickle into the private sec
Re: (Score:2)
So how come we are so far behind socialist Europe, and Japan, in broadband penetration if monopolies are such great things that do wonders for their customers? I mean, even with the tons of government subsidies we give them, they haven't managed to do as well as a bunch of scruffy unwashed hippy socialists! Maybe monopolies are not in fact a good thing. Maybe monopolies SHOULD be socialized. Maybe democratic control over natural monopolies like roads and utilities actually works better than private ownershi
Re: (Score:1)
Socialism is oftentimes the more efficient way of achieving something. See also those for whom free market capitalism is their/a religion. Unfortunately for you guys, there are those of us however who put morality above the ultimate in efficiencies.
And there is no democratic control these days. You and Z do or have likened a govt. solution to being a good one based on we being the govt. If only. But our representatives don't do what we want. They ignore us at town hall meetings, give themselves pay raises a
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Your definition of morality is not the end all, be all, highest rightest bestest form that all must acknowledge and bow down to. It may interest you to find out that I consider a lot of what you consider moral to be immoral. A system that lets the strong become stronger and oppress the weak is not a moral system. A system that lets a person accumulate power over others is not a moral system. A system that considers its poorer citizens as disposable resources is not a moral system. A system that does not hea
Re: (Score:1)
But our representatives don't do what we want...With an approval rating of 9% or whatever, it's at least that little how they represent us.
Where do you get that number from? Some dumb media outlet? The statistics I see indicate at least a 95% approval rating(98.6% to be precise for the prez), which tells me our reps DO do what we want. If you want real numbers, start here [house.gov]. All your media polls are pure BS.
two reasons (Score:1)
It's allowed for two reasons.
First, if you suggest that any company's monopoly be returned to the people, who liscensed it to them in the first place, then everyone thinks that you're Stalin. Yes, being against the government granting a private party the authority to come dig up your land, run lines under them, and take profits from your land without paying you a dime of rent, is apparently the red Soviet menace incarnate. So reason number one, Americans like to lick the boots of their elite. Or ruling clas