http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.aspOriginally Posted by Dr. Love
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.asp
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FORD (01-21-2014)
"Market Pressure" only works when there is a choice. I can't put much pressure on Scumcast, because it's a monopoly and I have no competitor to throw in their face.
It's not like telling Meconi's Subs down the street that if they raise the price on their meatball sub again that I'm going to Subway (which is literally across the street from them). Now there you have the possibility of market pressure. Actually, Meconi's sub already costs more, but they are an independent, locally owned business, so I prefer to support them when possible. They also have Coke products rather than Pepsi. Sadly it's the corn poison variety in both cases, so I usually end up getting whatever juice or ice tea they have in a bottle in either case. But all things being equal, or even somewhat unequal, but with other factors added to the assessment, I'm fine with "market pressure" where it actually can exist.
It doesn't exist when it comes to fighting Scumcast and their fellow regional monopolies.
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So you're not trying to throw around objectivist philosophy, but then you go to a Randtard blog???
FFS! The internet wouldn't even exist without significant government funding. Who the fuck are these entities trying now to seize control of what they themselves were completely unable to develop to begin with? The internet exists as it does because there was no significant control over it...
Sucks in your area and I feel for you - locally I have about 5 different providers I can choose from, between uverse/fios/cable/dsl/dish. I would prefer an a-la-carte selection for TV but to be honest, I can consume a lot of shows on tv however I want, and don't have to do the TV bundle with fios. I can buy them on xbox live, watch them on netflix, amazon prime, buy seasons on bluray, get them from the local library, borrower dvds from friends, and several more options.
Hardly a monopoly.
I guess the real question is why does a progressive state like yours have these problems while a backwards, conservative state/area like mine not? I don't get it.
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Redballjets88 (01-21-2014)
The corporatists are trying to seize control of ALL public infrastructure. This bullshit with the freeway in Florida, for example. Charter schools being another. All the privatization of the military that took place under Chimp & Cheney (and continued to some extent under Obama, unfortunately) And obviously, the so-called "Affordable Care Act" which wasn't about universal health care as much as it was ensuring the private insurance industry survived the baby boomers leaving it for Medicare.
All of it having a common thread - greedy corporations making money off of what Thomas Jefferson and his pals would have called "the commons". Meaning that which should belong to the people.
That is a damn good question. The easiest answer is that the state isn't nearly as progressive as you might think. East of the mountains, it might as well be Texas (or any other red state). And even west of the mountains, apart from the immediate Puget Sound area, it's not a Liberal paradise either. Thankfully, this is where the majority of the population is, so that's why things like weed and weddings pass the ballot measures. Sadly our state "Democratic" party is only slightly less DLC than the national, and though we haven't had a Republican governor since 1984, we haven't had a liberal governor since 1996
I'm not sure TV shows fall into that area. You might make the case for the internet being in that area but realistically you do have choices beyond just cable for internet. Do you guys not have LTE? Can you not get a hotspot?
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oligopoly.asp
So, how would you like your web packaged?
FAUX ain't worth shit.
So, how would you like your web packaged?
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DSL here is limited to 1.5 mbps. Verizon's LTE claims to have full coverage in my neighborhood, but I don't know of anyone who has been able to use it as of yet. ClearWire never made it this far south, although they did apparently go to Aberdeen, which makes no fucking sense at all. The other wireless carriers might work right on the I-5 corridor, if you're lucky.
So in other words, there's no practical option, other than Scumcast.
There are options. And as you've pointed out bad things MIGHT happen, and they MAY hurt people...at Whig point we will deal with it as a free society with laws and justice. Til then let things play out. We've already discussed the various other options available.
Now don't get me started on what I can do with my Internet cables and what I can charge for its use.
In the end liberty should be paramount.
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Sorry I'm typing on my iphone so replies may get fucked up
So you want to wait until AFTER the corporations fuck everybody over, and THEN do something about it?
How well did that work in West, Texas?
How well did that work in West Virginia?
Or Plaster Rock, Canada? Seems the last deadly oil industry caused train explosion wasn't enough for Stevie Harper to take notice, so now they have another one?
Point is, you wait for corporations to fuck you over and THEN regulate them like they should have been regulated in the first goddamned place, guess what? You'll never get that genie back in the goddamned bottle. The better course of action was to never open the bottle to begin with.
Wall Street being the obvious example.... as long as Glass Steagal was in effect, they couldn't turn the national economy into a giant casino with them betting on all sides to make sure they won, win or lose (and most of us definitely lost)
Nickdfresh (01-22-2014)
We need to get some hot ho's and get these judges into incriminating positions and start blackmailing them to get our way. I think this is how the world really runs.
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Angel (01-22-2014)
How can Harper notice anything? He's too busy sucking Netanyahu's dick.
I can't believe how many tanker cars go through here now. Gives me the willies when I get stuck at a crossing. I didn't see one grain car last summer. Our farmers can't get their grain shipped because the rich oil bastards have all the trains...grrr...
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I don't have cable TV anymore, so I don't see much of CBC news. Was there any sort of public outrage up there after that horrible train wreck last year? Or after this more recent one?
Not enough. We've got so much shit going on with Senate scandals, pipelines, veteran suicides, First Nation issues, election fraud...fuck, I could go on forever. Stephen Harper's Canada is not the country you used to show so much respect for.
FORD (01-22-2014)
That's sort of retarded. What "liberty" is there in companies carving up the internet they never really invented or developed anyways and seizing largely open-sourced technologies....
In essence, you're saying the gov't should allow monopolies, because monopolies probably won't abuse their power: it's only a possibility. Really?
FORD (01-22-2014)
You're throwing around monopoly when there isn't a true monopoly in the situation. There aren't any meaningful cases of an ISP abusing its power. And with the market moving towards broader solutions I don't think the FCC idiots need a backdoor in yet.
And once again West, Tx, has always had regulation. The regulators never bothered to come around...So what good does regulation do anyway.
Obviously you have never had to deal with Scumcast.
Broader solutions? What they are moving towards is more consolidation and more fascist lockdown on content. Let's say you are lucky enough to live in a big city, Dallas for example, so you can put a digital antenna on your roof and get all your network shows over the air. Now if you're on the road and wanted to watch one of these shows online, using your tablet or smartphone, or whatever, it used to be easy enough.... just pull up Hulu.com or the network's website and stream away. Except now the regional monopoly bastards want a cable account login/password to be able to do so. Disney's networks (ABC/ESPN/etc.) are already requiring this - not just on their own sites, but also on Hulu. Is your idea of "broader solutions"? And - mind you - they did this before this idiotic court decision.And with the market moving towards broader solutions I don't think the FCC idiots need a backdoor in yet.
Well, that's because your state hasn't had a governor with a brain since 1994. What the Hell kind of regulators would Chimp or Perry appoint? Corporate shills, of course. And those tanks in West Virginia? Last inspected in 1991. Because tanks that hold corrosive chemicals are just fine with inspections only every 25 years or so, right?And once again West, Tx, has always had regulation. The regulators never bothered to come around...So what good does regulation do anyway.
Regulation, even well-meaning regulation, isn't the solution so long as government remains corrupted by the industries they are supposed to regulate.
The first step is to rip the claws of the corporations out of goverment. Until that happens, I don't think any argument over regulation or its effectiveness is going to matter much.
Redballjets88 (01-22-2014)
Ironically, it was the last 33 years of massive deregulation which allowed the corporatists to get their claws in government in the first place. And then they systematically destroyed any means the people had of fighting back. The ability to have honest, fair elections. Courts. Unions. Even the freedom to peacefully assemble has been seriously fucked since Chimp/Cheney's first stolen election. The corporatists succeeded in purging any dissenting voices from the airwaves, and that left only the internet as a means of communicating those ideas. And now they want to take that away. While sadly, a good portion of the population is already too goddamned dumbed down to realize there's even a problem, and others are horribly misinformed about what the problems are and who directly & indirectly caused them.
Sure, but I don't think we're at a point where we can trust the legislators to pass meaningful regulation, or the regulators to enforce it, because they are all essentially owned by the corporations. Would be nice if the states would call a constitutional convention and make some very needed changes but I don't see it happening. I normally agree with the idea of incremental fixes but I don't think that we're at a stage where incremental fixes will get the job done.
Is it just me or are Doc's posts sounding more and more like Nitro's?
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first reserve bank scam reference and you are probably on to something...
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The first step is to smash every last electro-fraud machine (including the optical scanners) and vote with a fucking pencil and paper.
Money and corporatism needs to be removed from the political process entirely, but at the very LEAST, the corporations cannot be allowed to count the votes themselves. As long as we're still forced to pick from two very flawed candidates, the one who takes the office should at least be able to prove that he or she got the most votes.
That's probably the most effective of the incremental changes. Otherwise, the only way to proceed is organizing the people. Electing those who represent the people, and not the corporations, starting with the local level, and moving up to every available office. And then, city by city, county by county, state by state, overturning Shittizens United, regardless of what Opie Roberts and his 4 BCE appointed friends think about it.
I was using "monopoly" in the rhetorical emblematic sense...
So your alternative is to let corrupting corruptors regulate themselves?
Bend over America! The Tea Party is here!
Last edited by Nickdfresh; 01-22-2014 at 06:32 PM.
My life is by far not as purportedly interesting
I don't suggest any alternative. I don't think it can be changed. I'd rather invest my energy in making my own business succeed than fretting and worrying about how someone else has an unfair advantage and are doing better. I can be upset with the world around me, or I can accept it and figure out how to bend it to my advantage. I choose the latter. And so far over the last year, we've been really successful and I think we're going to be really successful this year.
I simply don't believe that it's worth the effort to complain, gnash my teeth and be draw into the same old rehashed rhetorical, philosophical argument on this website. No one here is going to have their minds changed and I think we've covered many of the interesting variations of the debate and almost all of the uninteresting variations. So what's the point?
I'd rather spend the time here chatting with FORD and everyone else about what their thoughts are on things than be dragged into Yet-Another-I'm-Right-And-You-Suck argument that we have really already covered ad nauseum.
Yeah I dunno. I think it would be beneficial. But I think at some point for meaningful change to occur, the existing government will have to be bypassed and meaningful reforms enacted without them.
Contrary to what a senile old actor once said, government is NOT the problem. However, the current makeup of the government is, and that's because the corporatists have infected it, which of course, started when that senile old actor was (allegedly) in charge.
The grass roots approach and building state by state certainly has its merits. Whatever side you take on abortion, weed legalization, or marriage equality - just to name three examples - these are things that were done on a state by state basis, and eventually got to a national level (or will get there, in the case of the latter two, but we have obviously seen rapid progress on both in just the last few years). On the other hand, you have things like GMO labeling, which was polling favorably both in California and here in Washington, until 11th hour propaganda pushes with MonSatan money came in and confused enough people to steal victory away from the people. So it's not going to be easy to fight these corporate machines....
And that brings it right back around to Net Neutrality.... because it may be the most effective way we have left of spreading the word rapidly on the issues. And for that reason (along with dozens of others) it cannot be stolen from the people.
Hence my "bend over" comment. You seem adept at it...
Well, I think there need to be new amendments imposing term limits on all positions (including the supreme court) and doing more to remove the motivations for people to be corrupted. No more money = speech, longer limits placed on how long people have to wait before going into lobbying, etc.
I don't see the federal government doing it on its own.
Sorry Nick, I'm not going to be drawn into a silly back and forth. You can continue to try. But I'm not going to waste my time with you on it.
Okay. I never asked you to. You posted in this thread probably more characters than I did though, bud...
The truth is though, you don't have a leg to stand on. Because like Marxist-Leninists do, when the limitations in your stilted ideology are exposed, you just turtle and take some bullshit highroad excuse before you start twitching like WHOPPER facing the irrationality of nuclear warfare. Enjoy your internet package!
Last edited by Nickdfresh; 01-22-2014 at 08:07 PM.
Right bud! It's all the evil government! Forgot about all of the benign corporations that give a fuck if your kids get cancer before they're five if it interferes with their profit! Keep up the good work like a good whore should...
February 12, 2014, 10:24 pm
Comca$t Set to Acquire Time Warner Cable for $44 Billion
By DAVID GELLES
Comca$t will announce a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable in an all-stock deal worth more than $44 billion that will unite the biggest and second largest cable television operators in the country, according to people briefed on the matter. .
The surprise merger — expected to be announced on Thursday — is likely to bring to an end a protracted takeover battle that a smaller cable rival, Charter Communications, has been waging for Time Warner Cable, and will be the second major deal for Comca$t in recent years to radically reshape the American media landscape.
Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive 2.875 shares of newly issued Comcast common stock for each of their shares. Based on Comca$t’s closing price of $55.24 on Wednesday, that values each Time Warner Cable share at about $158.82 each.
The combination of the two is certain to attract antitrust scrutiny by regulators.
David Faber of CNBC earlier reported the deal.
Charter, backed by John C. Malone’s Liberty had been courting Time Warner Cable for months.
Last month, Charter had offered to acquire the company for $132.50 a share — roughly around the market price of Time Warner Cable at the time.
The board of Time Warner Cable unanimously rejected that proposal, calling it “grossly inadequate.”
A deal by Comca$t would come four years after the cable giant agreed to acquire NBC Universal from General Electric in a transaction that valued NBC Universal at $30 billion.
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