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Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#21

Post by ChuckMcM »

I largely agree with the observations in the article although I believe the author misstates the intention of government with "But in the 1980s, folks in power decided bigger was better, and conventional political wisdom followed suit." The issue with the 80's was that the US economy was in a very weird place where we had low growth and very high inflation (called 'stagflation' at the time). The mechanics of the economy were adjusted not to make 'bigger better' but instead to break out of the state of stagnant inflation.

That the changes weren't undone in the 90s when much of the economic forces were re-aligned was a problem, but understandable since nobody wanted to go back to that mode. We are living in the opposite local minimum of growth and deflation where the economy is growing but inflation isn't happening because real income is going down.

That said I believe that making single supplier contracts unenforcable would be an interesting change to try.

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#22

Post by del82 »

cs702 wrote: post #4

"I started a manufacturing company in Little Elm, about 35 miles north of Dallas, to produce the first-ever automatically retracting syringe to eliminate the risk of nurses contracting HIV through accidental needle sticks. The syringe received rave reviews from nurses, hospital executives and public health officials, a major grant from the National Institutes of Health and robust private investment. But when my partn…

One quick question: why does it matter that the large corporations in which power is concentrated are geographically clustered? Would the situation be better if ceteris paribus the corporations were more geographically distributed?

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#23

Post by aaronbrethorst »

jessaustin wrote: post #14
tanderson92 wrote: post #5

Highly relevant: Matt Stoller in The Atlantic: "How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul In the 1970s, a new wave of post-Watergate liberals stopped fighting monopoly power. The result is an increasingly dangerous political system." https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/how-dem...

This really opened my eye: a long time ago, there was actually a meaningful difference between voting D and voting R. I can't really imagine voting in such a context, but it sounds nice...

How can you call LGBT rights, women's rights, police consent decrees, environmental issues, and health care, just off the top of my head, meaningless?

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#24

Post by pyvpx »

douche wrote: post #6

Or make it profitable to build shit in this country again. If you taxed the hell out of manufactured imports, and loosened up the regulations that are choking US businesses to death, you'd have less meth-and-fentanyl scourged abandoned mill towns.

you mean like electrical, fire, and general safety regulations? going off your "mill town" example, would you rather copy Bangladesh where the buildings collapse and children as young as 11 work 70 hours weeks in the textile industry?

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#25

Post by lawrencewu »

peacetreefrog wrote: post #9

Her two examples, the medical and agriculture sectors, are two of the most regulated industries around. A lot of these "monopolies" result because of regulation pushed by combination of well-meaning and self interested people and corporations (see bootleggers and baptists). Her examples suggest it'd be better to focus on the marriage between corporations and government, which allows companies to focus their energy on…

I don't know why you are getting downvoted because you're absolutely right. The first three markets named (airlines, telecommunications, health care) are all heavily regulated and the barrier to entries are controlled by the government, not natural market forces.

Monopolies are not all bad. Sometimes a company has a monopoly because they just offer a better product (Amazon, Google) and they shouldn't be punished for that, especially when there's no government intervention that exists to protect them.

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#26

Post by pyvpx »

trafficlight wrote: post #13
DroidX86 wrote: post #2

First things first: ISPs

I feel you. I started a small ISP in Montana a few years ago. We're getting into laying our own duct and fiber. Once I get the machine running, I want to focus on providing tools and information to others looking to do the same thing. I've been running a Slack channel called ISP School for about a year now to bring together other interested people. Email me at matt@tsi.io if anybody wants an invitation.

is TSI a CLEC?

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#27

Post by trafficlight »

pyvpx wrote: post #19
DroidX86 wrote: post #2

First things first: ISPs

that's easy -- de-privatize the last mile access networks. run (copious strand count) fiber to everything, lease at standard pricing for every entrant, with operations & maintenance (and plant depreciation) built in. done.

I think the hardest thing about a municipal network like that is having a government organization competent in managing it. Streets are still mostly functional with potholes, but a network certainly isn't.

We're operating on a brand new municipal network right now and it's not awesome. In an effort to be fair to all parties, no one is actually in charge. The network operator is separate from the construction contractor who is separate from the bandwidth providers. It's extremely frustrating.

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#28

Post by skummetmaelk »

cs702 wrote: post #4

"I started a manufacturing company in Little Elm, about 35 miles north of Dallas, to produce the first-ever automatically retracting syringe to eliminate the risk of nurses contracting HIV through accidental needle sticks. The syringe received rave reviews from nurses, hospital executives and public health officials, a major grant from the National Institutes of Health and robust private investment. But when my partn…

That's the thing though, that is exactly what a late stage "free market" looks like. What you need is a heavily regulated market that prevents exactly this behaviour.

People need to stop wishing for the "free" market. The term is abused by orators and manipulators who prey on peoples desire for a market which is free in the spirit of the word, and deliver to them a market which is technically "free" and horrible.

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#29

Post by trafficlight »

pyvpx wrote: post #26
trafficlight wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel you. I started a small ISP in Montana a few years ago. We're getting into laying our own duct and fiber. Once I get the machine running, I want to focus on providing tools and information to others looking to do the same thing. I've been running a Slack channel called ISP School for about a year now to bring together other interested people. Email me at matt@tsi.io if anybody wants an invitation.

is TSI a CLEC?

Nope. We argued that we were providing data services under the FCC definition of utility. The only real person who got in our way was the city attorney. He said that internet didn't qualify as Montana Code (circa 1950) only mentioned telephone and telegraph.

So we registered with the PSC as a telegraph provider...

Re: Want to rescue rural America? Bust monopolies

#30

Post by douche »

tanderson92 wrote: post #5

Highly relevant: Matt Stoller in The Atlantic: "How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul In the 1970s, a new wave of post-Watergate liberals stopped fighting monopoly power. The result is an increasingly dangerous political system." https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/how-dem...

How does that work? In the 1970s, the democrats were realigning, after the civil rights movement had fractured their tradional coalition and cast the Jim Crow Democrats into the Republican party with Nixon's Southern Strategy.
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