One Frightening Chart Shows What You Might Pay For Internet Once Net Neutrality Is Gone

[Beartracks]

106. "the problem with leaving things up to the private sector... if they don't see a profit in it"

We need a government agency to build out the Internet infrastructure, PRECISELY BECAUSE private enterprise finds it too burdensome to do it. Look what we did with the Rural Electrification Administration (a New Deal agency) in the 1930s:

"The REA was created on May 11, 1935, with the primary goal of promoting rural electrification.[1] In the 1930s, the U.S. lagged significantly behind Europe in providing electricity to rural areas due to the unwillingness of power companies to serve farmsteads.

"Private electric utilities argued that the government had no right to compete with or regulate private enterprise, despite many of these utilities' having refused to extend their lines to rural areas, claiming lack of profitability." (emphasis mine)

[link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Administration|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Administration]

Despite investor-owned utilities complaining loudly about the government "competing with them" in the electric industry, the grid rollout across the heartland actually generated a huge market for electric consumer goods, lighting, machinery, business, urban growth, etc., where none previously existed. And having government generating facilities making power available at-cost in the wholesale market tended to apply downward pressure on electric rates across the industry, increasing a drive for efficiency and competition among the investor-owned utilities. More consumers, more competition, better electric rates.

For a variety of reasons, the US would greatly benefit from this kind of infrastructure rollout for the Internet, too.

And, when you think about, this is another reason why government SHOULD establish a public option for health care: to promote efficiency and effectiveness and competitive pricing in the health care market.

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