RE: IP: Killer App?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: Russell Nelson <nelson () crynwr com>
> Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 23:44:35 -0400 (EDT)
>
> Thom Hartmann writes:
>  > Apropos of this discussion, I thought you may enjoy the attached.
>
> I'm disgusted by it.  Just like Jock's arguments are based on
> incorrect facts, so too are FDR's.
>
>  >      It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes
>  > of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out
>  > for control over government itself.
>
> Oh?  The railroad magnates wanted to be protected from that horrible
> competition which so often destroyed their profits.  They asked for
> regulation and so was born the ICC.  And indeed, I have a map of the
> railroads of New York State, extant and defunct as of 1958.  This map
> shows that nearly every trunk railroad had two competing railroads.
> You can drive along the New York State Thruway west of Syracuse and
> see the old roadbed paralleling the existing one.
>
>  >      Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could 
> appeal
>  > only to the organized power of government. The collapse of 1929 showed up
>  > the despotism for what it was.
>
> The collapse of 1929 was caused by the Federal Reserve restricting the
> monetary supply.  This was exactly the wrong thing to do.  Under FDR's
> reign they managed the economy so poorly that they succeeded in
> creating a recession in the middle of a depression.
>
>  >      Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly.
>
> FDR wrote this in 1936.  The Communications Act of 1934
> (http://showcase.netins.net/web/akline/1934act.htm) created a monopoly
> for AT&T.  FDR signed the bill himself.  Explain to me again how
> "opportunity was limited by monopoly".  Note the use of the passive
> voice.  Whenever you hear the passive voice, be alert to the
> possibility that someone is trying to confuse you about how did what.
> FDR himself limited opportunity by turning AT&T's market dominance into
> a government-granted monopoly.
>
> Quoting from _America Calling_ by Claude S. Fischer, page 50:
>
>         For one year during World War I the federal government took
>         over the telephone and telegraph industries.  This worked to
>         the benefit of the industry because the government instituted
>         price increases that the companies had been unable to gain on
>         their own.  This, in turn, both raised baseline rates and
>         helped discredit nationalization.  ... After the war a Senate
>         committee determined that telephony was a "natural monopoly,"
>         and a House committee declared that telephone competition "was
>         an endless annoyance."  In 1921, [Congress] waived antitrust
>         limitations on purchases of telephone companies.  In the next
>         thirteen years Bell was the buyer in 223 of 234 such
>         purchases.  By 1930, 80 percent of telephones in the United
>         States were Bell telephones, and 98 percent of the remainder
>         connected to Bell lines.
>
> Now, why was Bell able to out-compete their competition?  Because they
> convinced legislators that customers couldn't be trusted to seek their
> own quality level.  A law was then conveniently passed that mandated a
> certain quality level throughout the telephone system -- a quality
> that only Bell had the technology to provide.  Also from America
> Calling, but I do not have the page number to cite.
>
> I'm sorry, Thom and Jock, but market power is not like political
> power.  I have chosen to give Verizon power over my life through my
> purchase of a cellphone contract.  This contract is of limited
> duration, and I can choose to break the contract at an affordable
> price.  I can then choose a different cellular provider or indeed,
> none at all.  Tell me: how can I choose not to be a New York State
> subject, or a United States subject, without the considerable cost of
> moving?  Nobody is forcing me to buy anything.  Somebody is forcing me
> to obey the government.
>
> --
> -russ nelson <sig () russnelson com>  http://russnelson.com
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