> It seems to me that we're replacing bribing at the local level with bribing at the national level. This will make it much easier for large ISPs to thwart competition and defer innovation. Just another unintended consequence of government "solutions".
I'm curious, if you believe bribery works at the national level as well as the local level, how do regulations that are pro-consumer get passed?
In practice, I've found that the reason it works locally is almost no one is involved in local elections besides corporate sponsors. We literally had 10% turnout in my city, for instance.
Similarly, loop unbundling and other competition increasing regulation are almost always passed at the national level in basically every country that has such.
Regulations that are pro-consumer are inacted in favor of companies that have departments and expertise dealing in such regimes. "We'll go along with regulation X if you put regulation Y in that works in our favor". Regulatory capture was a big contributor to our near finanical collapse in '08. No one cares or thinks about the burdens regulations place on start-ups, despite all the "innovation" speak around NN.
So your argument is non-US ISPs are advantaged by greater competition because they get Y but US ISPs are not because they are too incompetent to clone foreign regulation in a way that benefits them?
Hint: There isn't a rebuttal you can make because if it is true, then your argument is false. If it is false, it is an admission that federal regulations do actually function to increase competition to the benefit of consumers. There isn't a third option.
You don't seem to acknowledge the existence of private sector collusion either.
Suggestion: don't use circular logic when debating.
I acknowledge private sector collusion, and the answer is more competition. More regulation (usually influenced by the existing players) harms market entry. You need to constantly update the X & Y regulations so that start-ups have a fighting chance. That's painfully slow right now.
I'm curious, if you believe bribery works at the national level as well as the local level, how do regulations that are pro-consumer get passed?
In practice, I've found that the reason it works locally is almost no one is involved in local elections besides corporate sponsors. We literally had 10% turnout in my city, for instance.
Similarly, loop unbundling and other competition increasing regulation are almost always passed at the national level in basically every country that has such.