(08-22-2018 12:11 PM)Claw Wrote:  

(08-22-2018 11:32 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(08-22-2018 08:53 AM)Marc Mensa Wrote:  The information superhighway should be a public utility available equally to all.

This

I think it already is.

They aren't refusing to sell Internet for gay marriages or anything.

You want to buy it? If they have it, and you can afford it, you can buy it.

That is what a utility does. Ever have pay to run the water line to your house? That's not free. The water coming in isn't free. If you use too little or too much, you may be charged a different rate because of it.

That's water coming in, but there is also water going out. As a household, your waste water is again your problem. You either have a septic tank or pay a sewer fee. If you have a LOT of waste water, you have to have special connections to the system and you pay a premium for the service.

This is what a utility is. Not some free service for everybody where everybody has the same size water main and the same size sewer drain. It is where people buy what they need and the utility provides it when they can.

I'm not arguing that it be free.

I'm arguing for the system to be treated like we treat roads. There is no private company manipulating our roads as to who gets on and how fast they can drive. We wouldn't allow that.

We shouldn't allow it here.

Also, the argument about "more you use the more you pay," doesn't hold water--no pun intended. The more water that is used by a consumer the more water must be treated etc. There is no cost for more data having been moved down the lines. It's purely private interests constraining trade for their own motives. The value to those private interests are vastly outweighed by society's interests as a whole in having those trade avenues unrestrained.