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by indigochill
3122 days ago
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The practical difficulty of government regulation as a means of maintaining competition is that when your government representatives are directly sponsored by the incumbents through campaign donations and lobbying, they're motivated to protect their sponsors. However, when incumbents over-invest in the status quo, if a newcomer can change the game then they can disrupt the incumbent and take over the industry. For example, Blockbuster was once the dominant name in video rentals in the US. Then along came a little rent-by-mail service called Netflix. I suspect something similar will happen to ISPs once we figure out how to remove the current reliance on their physical infrastructure. I have no faith that American politicians will regulate for competition in that field at least while the current incumbents remain the top dogs. For anyone curious about the actual spending on lobbying and donations, here are the numbers: AT&T (#9 in lobbying spending in 2016): https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000076 Verizon: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000079 Comcast: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?cycle=2016&id=D... Charter: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?cycle=2016&id=D... |
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