[wplug] The End of the Telcos?

[terry mcintyre]

The lack of choices is due to the government; most
municipal governments award a monopoly to one
provider, and make it _illegal_ for anyone else to
compete.

As for "fair" competition, it would be fair if the
government entity follows the same rules: charge fees
from voluntary customers, instead of drawing from the
tax coffers. Compete on the same basis. A while back,
a Mayor Goldsmith did something like this for
Indianapolis. He had a "yellow page rule" -- if you
can find suppliers for something in the yellow pages,
you should look for private contractors. He let the
existing government shops compete on the same basis.
He found some cases where unions were motivated to
present a winning bid, and kept the contract. 

At one time, government schools charged tuition of all
but the poorest. That was a fair competition, and it
kept them honest. Now 86% of parents are apparently
too poor to be responsible for the education their own
children. Of course, the same parents pay the taxes
which fund the "free" education. If parents were not
swayed by the lure of "free" education, the market
would be far more competitive. If we did likewise with
other government services, we'd have a much leaner
government and a much more powerful and productive
economy.



--- Drew from Zhrodague <drew at zhrodague.net> wrote:

> > Amen! Government is essentially the organized use
> of
> 
> > Government-run wifi and internet access will tend
> to
> > drive out private-sector offerings. We should
> resist
> > the temptation to mulct taxpayers for "free"
> internet
> > access.
> 
>  	Private sector offerings? Here in Pittsburgh? Like
> what for 
> example? There's nuth'n.
> 
>  	When I mentioned our local government, I was
> suggesting that the 
> City of Pittsburgh could cut their
> telecommunications costs extremely, by 
> implementing their own telecommunications
> infrastructure and not paying 
> Verizon gobs of taxpayer dollars. They're making
> calls to the next 
> building, some database traffic, and some generic
> Internet access. I was 
> not suggesting that the City of Pittsburgh start
> being an ISP for the 
> populace.
> 
>  	However, I wondered this yesterday: If governments
> are able to 
> FAIRLY compete with the private sector, would they
> do a better job? If 
> they are able to do a better job, shouldn't they be
> allowed to try?
> 
>  	I'd like more choices than Verizon and Comcast
> only, and I almost 
> don't care who comes down the pike.
> 


Terry McIntyre &lt;terrymcintyre at yahoo.com&gt;

“Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.”

Benjamin Disraeli, Speech in the House of Commons [June 15, 1874]


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ