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posted by martyb on Monday December 04 2017, @08:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the getting-shafted dept.

For decades, people in the US have been given a song and dance by the telecoms about how tax cuts, surcharges, and a long list of other expenses are necessary for telecoms to "invest" in infrastructure. The concessions are granted again and again, but the investments are never actually made. In all, US taxpayers have paid $400 Billion in taxes and Internet surcharges for fiber optic upgrades that never happened.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JNCF on Monday December 04 2017, @08:45PM (5 children)

    by JNCF (4317) on Monday December 04 2017, @08:45PM (#605280) Journal

    We need to get government's fingers out of business; a government's role should be mediating and enforcing according to well defined rules the agreements made between individuals (and their organizations) in the market. That's it.

    Do you have a solution to the problem of mission creep? Jefferson's proposal was periodic bloody revolutions. Besides the potential obsolescence of big government through technology and game theory, I don't have a better one.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @09:04AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 05 2017, @09:04AM (#605553)

    To regain freedom and liberty in America.

    People should their protests by smashing every Camera they come across. Start with Traffic Cameras, then government surveillance cameras, then cameras in stores.

    I am sure lots of people can think of other cameras that need bashing, and then plenty of devices with microphones and wifi as well.

    Renew the world afterwards and hope people have had time to learn from their, or their ancestors, previous mistakes.

    If it is not done, then do no be suprised when the chance for revolution slips through our fingers and teleoperated robotic hordes herd sheeple from one forced labor camp to the next.

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Tuesday December 05 2017, @12:45PM (3 children)

      by JNCF (4317) on Tuesday December 05 2017, @12:45PM (#605596) Journal

      The Jefferson solution, then. It seems romantic to me as well, but of dubious sustainability.

      "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." --Buckminster Fuller

      • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:45PM (2 children)

        by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Tuesday December 05 2017, @06:45PM (#605748)

        "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." --Buckminster Fuller

        As long as you are *allowed* to make a new model and use it. The current system does everything in its power to prevent any new system that would threaten it from getting off the ground.

        "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
        John F. Kennedy

        --
        "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
        • (Score: 1, Troll) by Scrutinizer on Tuesday December 05 2017, @11:35PM

          by Scrutinizer (6534) on Tuesday December 05 2017, @11:35PM (#605886)

          The last fellow [wikipedia.org] to set up a private set of services to compete with emergency-response and dispute-resolution government equivalent services was deemed so dangerous by the existing government that he was illegally railroaded through a trial and is now kept effectively incommunicado at a super-secure "Communications Management Unit" which manages his prison communications out of existence.

          Just one of many political US prisoners.

        • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday December 06 2017, @12:29AM

          by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday December 06 2017, @12:29AM (#605912) Journal

          I'm a big fan of that quote, too. And I agree, they will stop at nothing. That doesn't mean they'll win (though they may).

          I have more than one disagreement with AC, but the one I was trying to highlight is that I don't think he's proposing anything particularly new. Pushing back the clock on bureaucratic expansion is a band-aide, not a game changer.

          If a revolution were won by the masses today, I don't think much good would come of it. Some, but not much. We don't have a well-formed replacement yet. When and if we do, they'll attack it. Hopefully they will strike too late, and already be obsolete despite their well-armed arguments to the contrary.

          You and I might be dreaming of different systems.