In the right-wing Weekly Standard, Andy Kessler has another of what I call "Buckley articles," long-winded, seemingly noble statements that actually come back down to support of the party line.
The subject is net neutrality, and his point is that we don’t need it written into law because "laws are subject to abuse" and that instead we should threaten the phone companies with eminent domain.
Well Andy, Bullshit.
It’s true that legislation is a poor substitute for competition. Competition would be greatly preferred. But the same forces that are fighting net neutrality are also stomping-out competition, have stomped it out. What you’re saying, in the end, is this will never work, let’s try something we know won’t succeed instead. (As though a right-wing hack like you will then support the "taking of private property" you’re suggesting.)
The fact is, as I have said repeatedly during this debate, there are plenty of bits around in the American network. The problem is the Bells and cable operators who control those bits are hoarding them.
They’re defining 99% of those bits as "services" — cable services, phone services — billable events sold piecemeal. And even though they get far more per-bit by selling us general-purpose Internet bits — $50/month for a 1.5 Mbp download link is the equivalent of a single cable channel, and just one-fourth of a copper phone line’s Y2K data capacity — they won’t offer more, and want to get monopoly rents as middlemen from sites for reaching "their" customers.
If municipal networks, and general-purpose background providers like Level 3, can create a viable competing schema across the country, then we don’t need legislation. But that is not going to happen right away. It’s a process that will take years, and dollars, not to mention public support. Unfortunately (based on recent history) it is also going to take lawyers…unless we can force public officials to work in the public interest and pay attention.
That’s really what the net neutrality debate is about, forcing politicians to pay attention.
The more people learn about the Bells’ and cable operators’
bit-hoarding, the more they learn about how many more bits people can
buy in other countries, and for less money, the more they learn that
these European bargains are based on the exact same 1996 regulatory
scheme the U.S. has abandoned at the Bells’ behest, well, the madder
they are going to get.
And you know who they’re going to get mad at, Andy? At the politicians
who allowed this to happen, and to their enablers as places like The
Weekly Standard.
Want to know how we got to this pass, Andy? Look in a mirror.
