Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Cause We Are Special

AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. are lobbying Capitol Hill for the right to create a two-tiered Internet, where the telecom carriers' own Internet services would be transmitted faster and more efficiently than those of their competitors.

Isn’t this precisely the scenario that most libertarians think about when they argue against government regulation?  AT&T and BellSouth will wrap the protectionist regulation up in a swarm of rhetoric about public benefit and fairness and other nonsense.  The reality is that technology and the free-market are pricing the Baby Bells out of their own game and they are none too happy about it.

Haters of capitalism have been trying to justify excessive government regulation of the telephone industry by claiming that it is a natural monopoly - which is a load of crap, but the government regulatory bodies that they helped setup will be able to ensure that the telephone companies are a government imposed monopoly.  Thanks.  

When will people learn that regulators are always – I’ll repeat that, ALWAYS – hijacked by the industry that they were meant to keep in check?

HatTip: Slashdot

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