Sunday, 08 November 2009 03:40
KnowonSpecial
For those of you who are convinced that this Administration or the Federal Government is "on your side" and that they only have your best interest at heart, wanting only to "insure the public's best interest is served" or to "level the playing field" so that it's all "fair", you had better take a step back. Take a look at everything the government and all its myriad regulatory agencies have given us. Ask yourself if we are better off today with all the regulation, rules, codes, restrictions and legislation, or if just maybe there was a lot more innovation, discovery and invention before all the pompous politicians stuck their noses into the free market.
It seems the most common activity of liberals is to constantly search and try to find their next target in need of their "assistance". They look for some aspect of the economy or of other peoples lives in which they have little or no control and begin to drool thinking of ways to take it over. Power-hungry control monger liberals looked around and their gaze fell upon one of the last aspects of our economy that has zero interference of government - the Internet. These liberal control freaks, specifically Chairman Julius Genachowski and his Democratic colleagues on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), simply could not stand to have something as big and successful that they didn't have their claws into. They began rewriting federal regulations governing the Internet and broadband communications. According to Mr. Genachowski:
"the Internet today is a failed market in which neither entrepreneurs nor consumers are treated fairly."
Oh really? This statement actually comes as quite a shock to pretty much everyone who logs onto the internet. We "consumers" who read web-news sites while uploading our favorite family pics to Facebook while downloading new ringtones for our cell phones, while listening to our favorite radio station's streaming music web B-Cast might have to wonder what the guy is talking about. Hmmm, so this is what it feels like to be treated "unfairly"?
Apparently since the Internet is one of the only aspects of our economy and national life free from government regulation, Mr. Genachowski and his colleagues believe this is a bad thing. I'm going to have to disagree with them.
Senators Orrin Hatch and Jim DeMint in their Wall Street Journal article noted:
"If there is a perfect example of a success stemming from Washington's current hands-off approach to the Internet, it's the popular "There's an app for that" advertising campaign. Since the latest introduction of smart phones like Apple's iPhone and Blackberry's Curve, independent software developers have created tens of thousands of applications for mobile devices. There are apps for gamers, bloggers, couch potatoes, foodies, health-care providers and every other niche market you can imagine. These applications have improved people's lives and satisfied consumer demand, and done it all with no nudging or mandating or legislation enforcement from government.
And it has all happened without a Washington politician or bureaucrat moving a muscle.
This isn't a coincidence. If the Internet were invented by a politician or worse, managed by bureaucrats, cell phones would still look like bricks and the information superhighway would still be a dirt road. If there is any sector of our economy where competition is so fierce and where the pace of innovation is so rapid that government interference would only get in the way, it is the Internet and telecommunications market.
The Internet has grown because of a virtuous and mutually beneficial circle: network operators provide ever-increasing speed and bandwidth; content providers one-up each other with game-changing innovations; and consumers adapt and adopt at lightning speed.
Ten years ago, we effectively had no broadband marketplace. Dial-up Internet was common, but not ubiquitous. Consumers had a choice of service providers, but they were typically confined to walled gardens of preselected or preferred content. The broadband revolution led us out of that desert. Instead of dog-paddling, we could surf the net, choosing between broadband service offered by traditional phone and cable companies and, now, wireless companies as well.
Compare that to the last decade of success at government dominated companies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM or Chrysler.
Yet despite an overwhelming record of innovation, and customer satisfaction, Washington wants to replace the judgment of consumers with that of politicians and bureaucrats.
Net neutrality may sound like fairness but it is actually the opposite. Bandwidth is finite-like the finite number of lanes on a highway-and network providers must innovate in order to accommodate the burgeoning traffic. As they invest billions of private dollars in new and improved networks, they should rightly expect to set prices and manage those networks as they see fit.
If the FCC takes control of the Internet, we'll have the inevitable result of all poorly designed regulations: business decisions prejudiced by politicians and political decisions prejudiced by corporations. Keep in mind, we're talking about the most competitive, efficient and consumer-driven industry in the global economy.
Is it reasonable to believe committees of suits in Washington-with hearings and markup meetings and regulatory comment periods-can keep up with the competitive pressures of the Internet economy?
To ask the question is to answer it. There is a time and place for federal economic regulation, but the middle of a recession is not the time, and the Internet is certainly not the place.
-Mr. Hatch is a Republican senator from Utah. Mr. DeMint is a Republican senator from South Carolina.
We are not talking about "neutrality" here, we are talking about government strangling innovation by declaring that those who took the risks are greedy if they want to see gain from their hard work and imagination. We are talking about the government regulating into stagnation a thriving, growing free market success. They will continue to call it "Net Neutrality", when the last thing any of their regulations will be is neutral. They will be punitive, oppressive and draconian - heavy handed. Because that is the only way the government and politicians are able to function.
Just as in the novel 1984, today's liberal politician will repeat over and over the lie, label it the truth and know that if they say it often enough, loud enough and long enough, people will begin to believe it. We are well on our way to our politicians establishing the "Ministry of Truth" which spins out lies 24/7 to keep the deception going.
There is nothing neutral about the way politicians will go about gutting free market internet entrepreneurs, they will regulate and legislate them back to the stone age, because in all "fairness" the only time the playing field is "level" is at ground zero, before the game even begins. It seems that is where the FCC wants to take us, "back" to the future.
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