Krugman On the Connectivity Power Shift

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: July 24, 2007 11:40:21 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Krugman On the Connectivity Power Shift

[Note:  This item comes from reader Ken DiPietro.  The Krugman op-ed  
appeared on Monday, 7/23/07.  DLH]

From: Ken DiPietro <ken.dipietro () advantaq com>
Date: July 24, 2007 4:26:09 AM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: Krugman On the Connectivity Power Shift

In today's NYTimes (registration required), Paul Krugman's op-ed  
piece lays out in simple terms the statistical power shift in the  
online economy among Europe, Japan, and the US. This shift has been  
discussed here for some time, but it's good to see it coming to the  
attention of a wider audience.

As quoted from the article,

"As recently as 2001, the percentage of the population with high- 
speed access in Japan and Germany was only half that in the United  
States. In France it was less than a quarter. By the end of 2006,  
however, all three countries had more broadband subscribers per 100  
people than we did... When the Bush administration put Michael Powell  
in charge of the FCC, the digital robber barons were basically set  
free to do whatever they liked. As a result, there's little  
competition in U.S. broadband — if you're lucky, you have a choice  
between the services offered by the local cable monopoly and the  
local phone monopoly. The price is high and the service is poor, but  
there's nowhere else to go."


The original SlashDot article is located here:
<http://slashdot.org/articles/07/07/24/0017230.shtml>

The New York Times article (registration required) is here:
<http://tinyurl.com/2jyyv4>

What nobody seems to want to talk about is *what is best for our  
country.* Should we take the attitude that what is good for AT&T and  
Verizon is good for America? If so, hasn't the last decade of abysmal  
failure taught us anything? What good will a national broadband  
policy do for us, in real terms, if we do not understand what the  
long term goals are and what will be needed to achieve those goals?

As someone who has spent nearly every waking minute of the last ten  
years of my life working to address these issues, I can state without  
reservation, that unless we make some very serious policy changes -  
immediately - the damage we will do to our future will resonate for  
generations to come.

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