This really implies other rights for the requirements to access the broadband connection. Shelter, electricity, computer, etc, would all be needed for someone to realize this legal right. Will these also be provided by Finland to its citizens?
Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
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Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#12It's nice to see some governments recognizing that something which was once a luxury is now becoming a necessity as offline alternative for mandatory services (paying bills, job searching, etc) get stripped down or removed entirely.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#13Not necessarily related to this article, but doesn't Finland also require every citizen to enlist in their military for a few years?
I remember reading about it in some Linus Torvalds interview, seems like an interesting policy.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#14Great 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 disagree. People would join voluntary local cooperative that can better deals with network providers. They can take a loan out to build the last mile and then just pay to connect to a bigger hub and then even have ability to switch.
Condo home owner associations get better deals for a lot of things than the individual could.
One might think that a city is just one big cooperative, but of course, its not really voluntary at all (except that you decide to live there) and is usually not as transparent or as responsive as a cooperative that forms without any coercion.
There's a certain point where increasing size of a group causes more overhead managing the size of the group (otherwise know as "politics and corruption" than it gets you in buying power.
Of course, such things can't really happen once a provider convinces a municipality to to make it a regulated monopoly. Once it is a monopoly, it can devote itself perpetually to reducing this regulation instead of improving its service, as incentives to do so are greatly reduced.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#15It's nice to see some governments recognizing that something which was once a luxury is now becoming a necessity as offline alternative for mandatory services (paying bills, job searching, etc) get stripped down or removed entirely.
A car used to be a luxury, now it's a necessity.
Do you think owning a car is a legal right?
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#16It's nice to see some governments recognizing that something which was once a luxury is now becoming a necessity as offline alternative for mandatory services (paying bills, job searching, etc) get stripped down or removed entirely.
A car used to be a luxury, now it's a necessity. Do you think owning a car is a legal right?
That must really depend on where you live. I don't own a road registered car, and feel no ill effects because of it.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#17Great 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.
Health care is a labor intensive good. Labor is more expensive in the US than in most other parts of the world, particularly high skilled labor. A haircut or a yoga lesson also costs more in the US than in most other countries for this same reason.
Further, the US healthcare market has more regulations than you think. One example: in most of the world, you buy birth control pills at the store for cheap. In the US, you must first pay a doctor for permission.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That's partly because it's nearly impossible to build a telecommunications network in the private sector, due to the fact that you don't have eminent domain power, can't dig up roads, etc. And if we're going to have the government assisting private businesses, granting them local monopolies, etc., then sure, they should be regulated.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#19Great 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.
> the US has perhaps both the least-regulated
It is difficult to argue about this because there's no good unit of measurement for regulations.
But I would look at practitioner licensing, drug availability, tort law, and insurance requirements. My impression is that the USA is highly regulated (and more importantly, poorly regulated) in those areas.
Re: Finland makes broadband a 'legal right'
#20Great 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.…
> As Milton Friedman said, you can never judge a government program by it's intentions, only the results it gets.
The results, as far as I can tell, are that Scandinavian countries have very good publicly owned infrastructure.