Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
news.bbc.co.uk
Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#2Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen.
Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because:
1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight
2. you discourage new entrants to the market, thereby reducing competition
As Milton Friedman said, you can never judge a government program by it's intentions, only the results it gets.
Free markets and unbridled competition have a much better track record of driving prices down, making new technologies available to the masses.
Cost of flat panel TV's (unregulated) have cut in half every 18 months since they came out. What was once a toy for the rich is now available even to poor people.
Cost of health care (regulated, and increasingly a technology product) has steadily increased each year.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#3I keep telling people it's my legal right to have a spaceship, but noone seems to believe me. :(
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#4Interesting. I wonder if every Finn has the right to food, clothing and shelter.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#5Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
post hoc ergo propter hoc
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#6Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
Well, in this case we are beginning to treat broadband as a need for a person, so you can think of it as a market similar to the electricity or water market, where regulation makes perfect sense, and it actually favors competition by preventing "price abuse" from big established companies.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#7Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
Free markets and unbridled competition have a much better track record of driving prices down, making new technologies available to the masses.
In industries with a high barrier to entry, the market naturally tends away from competition. Broadband is one such industry, due to the enormous initial infrastructure costs.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#8Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
I'm curious why you would make that analogy. Differences between the TV and health care markets aside, last time I checked, the US has perhaps both the least-regulated and most expensive health care system in the industrialized world.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#9Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
Free markets and unbridled competition have a much better track record of driving prices down, making new technologies available to the masses. In industries with a high barrier to entry, the market naturally tends away from competition. Broadband is one such industry, due to the enormous initial infrastructure costs.
I don't think so, if you look at the united states the broadband industry is heavily regulated.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#10Great intentions - completely wrong way to make it happen. Regulating the broadband internet market will just make people in metropolitan areas subsidize the cost for people in rural areas. If it ended there...sure it wouldn't be fair, but at least it would be a zero sum game (some win, some equally lose). But with regulation that's never the case because: 1. you introduce additional costs for government oversight 2.…
I'm curious why you would make that analogy. Differences between the TV and health care markets aside, last time I checked, the US has perhaps both the least-regulated and most expensive health care system in the industrialized world.
I don't think you know how regulated health care is in the US. For instance, for all the talk about insurance companies being for profit, most don't realize that a lot were nonprofit until the government made that illegal.