Beware of laws proposed by the left to, “protect the little guy.” These laws invariably end up destroying the viability of the, “little guys,” businesses while solidifying the strength of the newly formed government monopolies. Why must these laws be given names and titles which will have the opposite effect for which they are intended, or likely to accomplish. The term net neutrality sounds as though our elected leaders wish to keep the Internet free and fair, and that it will be some sort of beacon of our Constitutional rights. Maybe it would work out that way in the dreamy like unicorn filled world of the political left, but in the land of reality, the results would be somewhat different, and the proponents of this law realize this. Large corporations like it because it will destroy their competition from upstarts and independent business owners. Politicians like it because it would allow them to control the speech of bloggers who might dare to say things not approved of by the aforementioned politicians. Service providers like it because it would establish them as an approved government sanctioned monopoly, much like the trucking industry of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Who won’t like it? The rest of us will get screwed. We will be forced to pay higher prices for crappier service. The free market developed the Internet just fine without government help, regardless of the baloney claims of Al Gore, (who incidentally purchased a beach front home despite his claims that the Oceans would destroy all beach front property within a few years.) For those who do not know, the Internet started as a private computer networking service offered during the late 1970’s by a company called CompuServe. They sold this service to Batelle Research Institute, The Ohio State University, Chemical Abstracts Corp., The Federal Reserve, AT&T, Ross Labs, Worthington Industries and several other clients. The joint efforts were initially established by Battelle, Ohio State, CompuServe, and Chemical Abstracts because they each realized that these four entities were constantly in need of accessing the other’s databases to conduct their work. There was no government subsidy which started it all. After the system had been operating for a profit for several years, Al Gore and several dozen other members of congress decided that the U.S. and its considerable computer needs could benefit from becoming a client of this service, which was already very well established and successful. Now, the Internet is so useful that the government is about to declare it a right, akin to the persuit of happiness etc. Private enterprise has done fine on its own with this one thanks, don’t destroy it by helping in that special way only big government knows how.
Crossposted at Musings of a Mad Conservative.
Tags: regulation
