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The conservative small government movement has gained momentum based on the principle that decisions are best made at a local level, because people know what they want better than the federal government does. So why is a contingent of small government-minded congressional representatives trying to dick over local governments when it comes to high-speed internet access?
I live in Chattanooga. I have their gigabit internet. It is great, but it could be better officially let us run servers, officially let us run open wifi ala openwireless.org (I do it anyway, but if they come knocking I'll have to turn it off), even better would be if they let other ISPs run on top of their fiber plant and compete with each other. Still, it is at least as good as google fiber for the same price or less (except for no $300 flat-fee low-bandwidth option).
[Editor's Note] For the non-Americans in our readership, this appears to be nothing more than the usual Rep/Dem disagreement depending on which 'big business' funded the most to the appropriate campaign coffers. I would have to agree that the pricing seems expensive but, as we know, that is caused more by the regional monopolies than the actual cost of provision.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Thursday July 24 2014, @06:24PM
" the principle that decisions are best made at a local level, because people know what they want better than the federal government does"
I've ran into people who think this way but I don't get it at all. What I don't get is the idea that a more local government is somehow equivalent to people making their own decisions. It's not that I think the politicians making up the federal government have my best interests in mind. They don't know me nor care! But neither do local governments.
It's the federal government that says things like I can't kill people. I'm ok with that. It's the state that says things like I can or can not enjoy a good firework. City governments will tell you what you can or cannot do with your own back yard! The more local you get the nosier people are. Thanks to the NSA the federal government might technically have enough information to barge into our personal lives but for the most part they have bigger fish to fry. It's our own neighbors that really have the ability to make our lives hell given a bit of power.
I say keep strict limits on the federal government.. but strip the powers almost completely away from the local ones!
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday July 24 2014, @06:44PM
I look at it the other way around. It's our own neighbors that really have the ability to make our lives hell if they can get away with whatever they want. This is why local governments exist -- to balance my neighbor's desire to be a dick with my desire to prevent his dickery from ruining my life.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by morgauxo on Thursday August 07 2014, @02:55PM
I suppose if you have no job and no life you can go to all of the town hall meetings and make your voice heard much better than at the state or national level. It is the people who fit that description though that are most likely to be the nosey neighbors making trouble for the rest of us! These people may live closer to me but they surely aren't representing MY interests! That is why I would like to see NO powers granted to the local city or maybe even county governments beyond those necessary to keep the roads maintainted and the water flowing.
(Score: 2) by MrGuy on Thursday July 24 2014, @07:01PM
It's the federal government that says things like I can't kill people.
No, it is not. Murder is virtually always a state level crime. There are very few circumstances under which murder (or most other acts that tend to be prosecuted in criminal courts, like robbery, rape, assault, etc) wind up as federal crimes. Almost all criminal law is state level.
Your argument would be more powerful if you understood the issues at hand before pontificating about them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24 2014, @09:05PM
Murder is virtually always a state level crime
When committed on federal land (e.g. a military reservation), it gets federal treatment.
President Kennedy's murder *should* have been handled by local authorities (who could have called in all the help they needed).
Instead, the locals deferred to the Feds, who then whisked off the body to another region, chose unqualified propaganda-friendly personal to "investigate", contaminated the evidence, and published a cover story.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24 2014, @07:36PM
> It's the federal government that says things like I can't kill people.
No, I'm pretty sure that murder is only a federal crime in specific circumstances.
Meanwhile, to address your general point, you can't legislate good governance. But you can make it harder to perform good governance. One thing that makes it harder is to put distance between the people making the decisions and the people who have to live with those decisions. It doesn't make good governance impossible and the opposite certainly doesn't guarantee good governance either. But in general, the less communication between the two groups, the harder it is to do representative government.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday July 25 2014, @03:13AM
its not really that a more local government is equivalent to people making their own decisions, but the closer a government is to the people it governs, the more able they are to hold that government accountable. the further a government gets from its people, the more the people appear as numbers and statistics than as people. so the closer it is to its people, the more likely it is to listen. there's also less people involved at lower levels, so it'll be easier to get a consensus on how the people want to be governed.
education of the populace is even more critical when more power is held locally though, because without it, you get idiotic situations like in my area where people fight to lower property and other taxes while bitching about underfunded schools and other services; they fail to understand even the very basic idea of government, which is basically that everyone pitches in money (pays taxes) to provide everyone with essential services and institutions (schools, roads, utilities, emergency services, etc), and that those services can not be provided if the resources aren't available (no taxes, no services).