[171278] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: The FCC is planning new net neutrality rules. And they could
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Larry Sheldon)
Fri Apr 25 00:16:47 2014
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 23:16:08 -0500
From: Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon@cox.net>
To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <u3l61n00J1Una3W013l7jw>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On 4/24/2014 10:44 PM, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
> On Apr 24, 2014, at 23:38 , Larry Sheldon <LarrySheldon@cox.net>
> wrote:
>> On 4/24/2014 10:23 PM, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote:
>
>>> The invisible hand of the market cannot fix problems when there
>>> is a monopoly.
>>>
>>> Put in economic terms, a player with Market Power is extracting
>>> Rents. (Capitalization is intentional.)
>>>
>>> Regulating monopolies allows a market to work, not the opposite.
>>
>> Regulating monopolies protects monopolies from competition.
>>
>> Monopolies can not persist without regulation.
>
> You are confused.
No. I am not.
> Unless you are talking about "persist" on a time horizon spanning
> generations.
A monopoly can persist, as a maximum, as long as regulation protects it.
Just look at the words! "Regulated Monopoly" has no definition without
a monopoly.
If so, then nothing can persist, with or without
> regulation. And more importantly, I am not willing to wait that long
> for a fix.
"fix" is another monopoly preserver.
>> A regulated monopoly is a monopoly, with all of the powers granted
>> to monopolies by regulation.
>
> Regulations can work to ensure monopolies do not form. This is not
> supposition, but historical fact.
There is no case where regulation of monopolies prevented monopolies.
The sentence doesn't even make any sense.
If that were actually true, there couldn't be any "regulated monopolies"
could there?
> It is an open question whether our current regulator regime is
> capable of repeating that feat, however.
There are a number of cases in history where the absence of regulation
has prevented monopolies.
--
Requiescas in pace o email Two identifying characteristics
of System Administrators:
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio Infallibility, and the ability to
learn from their mistakes.
(Adapted from Stephen Pinker)
