Re: [PLUG] cultural ethics of email and spam

[zuzu <sean.zuzu@gmail.com>]

On 10/17/07, Eugene Smiley <eug+plug@esmiley.net> wrote:
> John Von Essen wrote:
> > My sarcasm is to illustrate a point. US telecoms and broadband access
> > providers go to GREAT measures to provide high speed access at
> > competitive prices.
>
> Bwaaaaahahahahahaahahaaaaaaa!
>
> I've never laughed so hard in my life. US telecoms and broadband providers are
> for the most part owned by STOCKHOLDERS. These stockholders expect a return on
> their investment and expect NOT to see their money spent on frivolous things
> like providing WORLD CLASS high speed broadband access. Yes, I said it.
> stockholders think FAST broadband is frivolous.

I don't buy into this line of reasoning.  I'm not apologizing for the
telecoms either, but I suspect the problem has to do with regulatory
capture (of the FCC, to stave competition) and that "rent seeking"
carries less risk than "profit seeking".  telecoms would rather keep
collecting a check for crappy service than risk investing (the heart
of capitalism) in better service for customers.  competition to
satisfy customer wants is necessary to drive this risk-taking (as
opposed to "risk averse") behavior.

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

"In economics, rent seeking occurs when an individual, organization,
or firm seeks to make money by manipulating the economic and/or legal
environment rather than by making a profit through trade and
production of wealth. The term comes from the notion of economic rent,
but in modern use of the term, rent seeking is more often associated
with government regulation and misuse of governmental authority than
with land rents."

"Most studies of rent seeking focus on efforts to capture special
monopoly privileges, such as government regulation of free enterprise
competition, though the term itself is derived from the far older and
more established practise of appropriating a portion of production by
gaining ownership or control of land. The term "monopoly privilege
rent seeking" is an often-used label for the former type of rent
seeking. Often-cited examples include a farm lobby that seeks tariff
protection or an entertainment lobby that seeks expansion of the scope
of copyright."

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

"Regulatory capture is a phenomenon in which a government regulatory
agency which is supposed to be acting in the public interest becomes
dominated by the vested interests of the existing incumbents in the
industry that it oversees.  In public choice theory, regulatory
capture arises from the fact that vested interests have a concentrated
stake in the outcomes of political decisions, thus ensuring that they
will find means - direct or indirect - to capture decision makers. The
concept is central in a branch of public choice that is often referred
to as the "economics of regulation", which is critical of earlier
conceptualizations of regulatory intervention by governments as being
motivated to protect public goods."


> The reason? POOR government
> policy. The FCC calls broadband anything above 200kb/s.
>
> They will invest the minimum they can get away with to maintain or grow their
> market share.

because they're depending on the FCC for privileged protection, like
the CAB did for PanAm.
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