Since David
Atkins asked the right questions about the wisdom of the recent purchase of
Time Warner Cable by
Comcast, I won’t have to.
. . . the taxpayers funded much if not most of the
actual wiring infrastructure that makes up the Internet for which these
companies charge. Moreover, the Internet is an absolutely essential commodity
for doing business, no less important in many ways than water and electricity.
No matter what the law says, it’s functionally a utility and public good at
this point, and since taxpayers funded both its creation and most of its
subsequent development, we deserve to reap the rewards. We don’t deserve one
monopolistic behemoth seeking rents on all of us, particularly now that the
courts have eliminated net neutrality.
A society that allows its taxpayer-funded public goods to be privatized,
monopolized and vertically integrated is crazy, corrupt or both. It’s long past
time to nationalize Internet services.
I’m not sure I’d go that far. I prefer Atkins’ next favorite
option. As I argued in a March column,
the next best option is for states and municipalities to enact their own
taxpayer-funded Wifi and broadband services.
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2014.
