Originally Posted by
PedroDaGr8
Damn it, did you even TRY to read what I posted before you opened your mouth?
First off, as I stated, the internet WASN'T a disaster because the FCC was ALREADY enforcing net neutrality from 2005, they just called it Net Fairness. Again, the internet became VERY close to being a huge disaster in the mid-2000s, way more than you realize. There were already issues cropping up and the FCC was dealing with them to prevent abuse. As I said to BigBlue92, just because you weren't paying attention doesn't mean things weren't happening. If the FCC had not been as proactive as they were, the internet would be a huge mess today and likely 90% of the stuff you enjoy would either not have been invented or no longer exist. I already listed a number of things that the ISPs tried but my list isn't even half of the other things they tried. The ONLY reason that these abuses didn't get worse was because they were mostly stymied by the FCC.
That being said, with every success and loophole discovered they became more and more bold about their exploitation of their customers. Additionally, the more they consolidated the more they abused their position. So your statement that things weren't bad before 2015 is ACTUALLY evidence to the fact that the Net Neutrality regulation was necessary, because most of these rules were already in effect. The most recent rule, now called Net Neutrality, basically was there to close some of the additional loopholes that the ISPs had found and to deal with the legal corner that the ISPs sued the FCC into. The FCC did not want enhanced legislation, they wanted to be as hands-off as possible. They DID NOT want to classify them as common carriers because it does introduce a lot of regulatory hurdles that may or may not be relevant, but Congress refused to codify Net Neutrality as law OR give the FCC another legal option to enforce it. As a result of the lawsuits the only options left were to abandon the exact rules that made the net what it was from 2005-2017 or codify them as common carriers (which they 100% are and the FCC 100% has the congressional authority to do) to get the ability to regulate these rules acceptable.
Ajit Pai just scrapped EVERYTHING going all the way back to Net Fairness. He did not roll it back to pre-2015 levels like he (and many Republicans) are lying (and they know this and hope you don't). He rolled it back to pre-2004 levels of regulation. Back when AOL was still a thing and the internet was barely a part of life. Every single thing the ISPs tried previously, which was judged illegal, is now 100% legal. All of it, every single little bit. They can screw you over any way they choose and you get to bend over and take it.
First on their list, Netflix is dead. It is not going to be a quick death, but Netflix and any related service is dead all the same. The Cable ISPs are driving this one, they want you to pay way more and get way less so that you can use their proprietary system. Second will be segregation of the internet. You will have priority lanes and slow lanes, that is a fact. It happened before and it will happen again. You will be told what devices you can connect to the internet. Want to connect a router, you MUST buy it through your ISP and only one they control. As mentioned before, AT&T already tried this, this is not a hypothetical. You get to pay AT&T's prices not the free market prices. Plus, it gets hacked? Oh well, that's not their problem; you should have been more careful. Want to connect your computer, they could legally enforce that you MUST purchase your computer through them (much like cellphones). Again, lining their pockets and screwing your over. This regulation destroyed the free market, not enhanced it, so don't give me "muh free market garbage".
On the topic of the free market, the free market is operating exactly as designed right now and by its default nature markets with a high barrier to entry end up with HUGE abuses of the consumers because the competition is not there. The competition is what makes the free market as good as it is. Without it, you get all of the negatives and none of the benefits. This high barrier to entry is a physical problem, called the last mile problem, and some of the brightest minds in the world have been trying to solve this problem for the last four decades and do not have a solution. As such, the only options are: the government subsidizes build outs (they have tried but it is too expensive at the large scale), build municipal ISPs (which is like a subsidy but more locally tailored), regulate the market to prevent the abuses, or let the companies abuse their market position to gain more control and further exploit the citizens of this nation. Even now, they have enough power to abuse their position notably. When local small level ISPs try to setup, the major ISPs use their lobbying to get them shut down. Hell even larger upstart ISPs like Google Fiber have been heavily stymied by the nation ISPs. They have gotten Google Fiber shut down in many cities, either directly or by making it impossible to be profitable. Same thing with municipal broadband networks (in essence the government attacking the last mile problem), the large national ISPs work to get them shut down and are trying to make them entirely illegal if possible. So the only option left to prevent these abuses is to regulate the market.
As for regulation, just because the government does some things (or even most things badly) doesn't mean it does EVERYTHING badly. Again, the free market is not perfect, just less imperfect than almost every other system. The free market fails when it comes to externalities and dealing with monopolistic/oligopolistic situations. It also fails when it comes to long term planning, but that is not relevant here. The free market needs the government to step in with regulation to ensure competion, ensure fairness, and hopefully ensure long term planning is dealt with. This was a levels the playing field kind of regulation, Ajit Pai just rolled that back to the Standard Oil/1950s AT&T level of unfairness and you somehow think that is a positive for the free market.
The Republicans who support this appeal are 100% wrong on this and it is not even close. They know that by saying removing this regulation the market is more free that many will not be intelligent enough to realize it is a lie. The reality is they are intentionally screwing you over to benefit the ISPs while damaging the free market and you are somehow supporting this.
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