you mean you're a hopeless idealist who think things have to be perfect?

i'm glad you agree we need to get rid of corruption

but i'm mystified how you think the country's obvious success has nothing to do with democracy, however imperfectly implemented

i've been commenting on slashdot for years. there's always this steady drip of comments from grammar (punctuation?) nazis like yourself. do you see me changing or caring?

if you don't like the formatting of my comment, don't read it. i don't owe you anything. you're not paying me

this is an informal comment board, not a doctoral thesis. get over yourself

yes, exactly

and that's exactly the next step with a weakened government: corporation owned armies abusing you with no recourse for your rights

oh, i'm making that up? it's science fiction?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

By the early 1890s, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America.

During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories, as well as recruiting goon squads to intimidate workers. One such confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the strikebreaking measures of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie.[citation needed] The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to the deaths of seven Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.[4] The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia as well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. The organization was pejoratively called the "Pinks" by its opponents.

now remember dick cheney and his adventure with blackwater

weaken the government and blackwater expands exponentially, and corporate goons are now stepping on your throat: "get back to work slave, i mean citizen. if you have a problem with our enforcement activities, please see the corporation owned courts, or attempt to fight our legion of well-funded lawyers when you can barely get enough to eat, because we've let 'the market decide' your salary"

you look around the world at kleptocracies, warlords, mafias... you really fucking believe government has a monopoly on force?

if there is no government army, it's not suddenly peace and happiness, it's fucking hell

where do you morons come from with your bullshit unexamined beliefs?

we have competing ambulance services here in the usa too

but they will take you to a further away hospital they have financial agreements with (fuck your actual health emergency)

and if you don't have insurance you get a life destroying huge bill (because health insurance is a "choice")

agreed (with the european part, fuck your grammar demands)

http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

you really can't conceive of the simple obvious fact that running all that fiber is fucking expensive?

oh, EUR, euro

you guys understand the concept of a natural monopoly so much better than americans

in the usa we believe letting a rent seeking parasite siphon more money for shoddier service, and buying off our government to keep the arrangement, such as with healthcare, is "capitalism." and anyone who suggests dealing with natural monopolies as they should be dealt with: government control or heavily regulated, as you describe, is "evil socialism"

propagandized morons

additionally, no one wants their roads constantly dug up by various companies all the time, or the poles by their house an ugly rats nest of various cables

better: one cable, fractionally leased

as tech improves and one cable means much more bandwidth, government progressively upgrades the single cable, and has more bandwidth to lease

i see that as a half measure but i still approve, it is an improvement over the status quo elsewhere. how expensive is your cable bill?

and that's exactly how wireline should work

government should build and maintain the fiber, and companies should lease it for any and every service, comprehensive or fractional, that the free market commands

the current american system is a fucking joke- there's no competition in wireline because the barrier to entry is too high, it's just too expensive to build the shit

so we have a monopoly. it should be the government that governs it. because letting an economic parasite drain us like a vampire for shoddy service is certainly worse than any criticism you want to level at government, and competition from google isn't coming for another 40-50 years to your town

can you make a plain language argument countering my point?

i am saying a high cost to market entry creates a natural monopoly. no government is needed to create it. it's a natural consequence of the underlying costs of the market sector in question

where am i wrong?

i think my statement is pretty straightforward and without error

you simply paste a link

i'm sorry, but "go read my religious literature" is not an argument. in fact, i would say you have no argument. you have an unfounded faith in an unsupported belief. a bit of foolish trendiness, which is all your link represents, that will fade to history, along with such nonsense as phrenology and lamarckism, as dead ends of academic thought

the emperor has no clothes my friend

the cult of the free market fairy: the free market fairy solves all problems! how? don't ask silly questions, don't think, just BELIEVE

thank you

a toast to the day we do not have to suffer anymore the economically illiterate fools and their magic cult of the free market fairy, peace be unto her

agreed except for two points:

1. for chronic conditions there isn't informed choice. choosing oncologist A over oncologist B because A smiles more doesn't mean much. 99.99% of us lack the educational capacity in oncology to know which is the better oncologist.

2. broadband for the narrow topic of internet connectivity is pretty much about fiber/ cable. it's too slow to get it over dial up/ cell networks/ satellites (unless you live in nunavut, not much choice otherwise). so when we talk "broadband" the topic is for all practical purposes only about the guys running fiber in your average urban/ suburban environment

which is a natural monopoly the government should own, then lease the fiber fractionally to everyone and anyone who pays a fee and wants to offer a service, any service. pretty much the same economic model of how we auction off the EM spectrum to radio, television, wifi, telephony, etc. that's the way it should work with fiber

that's called corruption

the error is with those who believe it is government behind it all

the truth is the monopolies corrupt the government

for those fools who think the answer is to weaken government, well the monopolies can do away with corrupting legislators and regulators and rape you directly. they want that

then what? with no government/ weak government, how is the monopoly challenged?

the answer of course, is that nothing stops them now

only government is your tool against monopolies

those who argue for the weakening of government then are either genuine plutocrats with vile intent, or witless naive well-meaning fools in the unwitting service of plutocrats who genuinely believe pseudoreligious wishfulfillment economic nonsense ("the free market fairy solves all problems!" "how..." "shut up, stop thinking, just repeat after me!")

the true solution of course is to fight corruption, not fight government

oh don't get me wrong, government sucks on many levels and in many ways. i don't like government. it's inefficient, bureaucratic, slow, and often blind

but on the specific topic of natural monopolies alone (the only topic i am defending government in, to inoculate this comment from all the idiots who want to accuse me of loving government in all matters), government regulation and control is the only viable option. not an option to like. a horrible option. but better than all the other options (weak government and monopolistic control)

again: on the topic of natural monopolies alone, government is the unfortunate only answer. only answer because no government, weak government, or corrupt government, is worse

just look at healthcare or broadband in the usa. and compare the status quo in our social and economic peers who spend far less on healthcare and have higher quality healthcare, and likewise with broadband, because of heavy government involvement and regulation

rather than the legalized corruption of the usa where plutocrats buy regulators with revolving door jobs, buy legislators with election campaign funds, and screw us with shoddy service and high prices

and pump out propaganda saying it's all government's fault. and morons lap it up, helping with their impoverishment. in their effort to weaken and corrupt government, the only tool we have against monopolies, there is no greater friend to the plutocrat than the propagandized fool who hates the idea of government without thought or reason, when it's the only tool we have *on this topic of natural monopolies alone* (because here comes all the "you love government on all topics" drool snort. no, i do not)