That seems very wasteful. If you require internet providers to create infrastructure for all their customers to max out their connections at the same time, the efficiency of the network's going to be very, very low. Most of the bandwidth would be wasted, because peak demand would never be anywhere near that.
At the same time, consumption of or damage to public goods, like the air or the water, is an externality that needs government regulation to prevent. Those things do have costs and they need to be paid by the firms using them in order to avoid market distortions. Thus, in some cases regulation can be supported on those grounds.
How the government goes about to do that, though, is tricky. It's not easy to figure out the cost of things like air pollution, or even to decide what counts as air pollution. Markets can be improved by government intervention, and this article might cite a case of one. But it's so hard to make sure that the government does more good than harm, in part due to hidden pitfalls, as your example illustrates.
That's not true. Bandwidth is most definitely finite.
The marginal cost is a steps function. For example, on a 100Mbps Ethernet network with 5 computers with each computer using 10Mbps, it's free for any single computer to use 25Mbps if necessary. But if all the computers start trying to use 25Mbps, there is a significant cost to allow that.
Solar Power is another example where your created commodity is 'free', but finite.
>I think, in recent years, its become readily apparent that a company's true customers are it's stock holders and board members. The consumers are just raw material to be milked for money in ANY way possible.
The stockholders are management's customers. The stockholders own the company and (indirectly) hire management to run it for them. It's not really a problem, and that's how the system is supposed to work.
Your real issue is with incompetent management not doing a very good job for their stockholders. Who's fault is it? Unclear. If it's a problem with management, corporate governance reform would work, but if the problem lies with shareholders, we're screwed. Short of investing in better public schools, I don't think there's a solution for a general public that can't work in its own self-interest.
Actually, "Crazy on You" was the Heart song in Guitar Hero 2. "Barracuda" was in Guitar Hero 3, which probably hit an even larger audience than 2 did.
Anecdotally, Guitar Hero 2/3 convinced me to pick up one of Heart's Greatest Hits CDs.
Yes. GST is applied to everything (except basic groceries, and a handful of other products deemed basic necessities). PST is a provincial thing, and the provinces haven't been nearly as good at keeping the rules simple.
However, my billing address is Albertan and thus I don't pay PST on digital goods because Alberta has no PST. Generally I still have to pay on physical goods, as they'll use the shipping address to determine taxation. GST, however, is rather straightforward in that I have to pay it on all goods and services.
The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to work.
