[2047] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: interesting historical document
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (baer@jessica.stanford.edu)
Tue Jan 21 13:37:31 1992
To: sean@dsl.pitt.edu (sean mclinden)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 20 Jan 92 10:44:37 -0500.
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 92 10:32:10 -0800
From: baer@jessica.stanford.edu
Sean gets it straight: Neither free markets nor complete regulation
will deliver an outcome that is satisfactory to all. To start with,
what the desired outcome is is not obvious. Free markets _under
conditions of perfect competition_, which hardly ever exist, deliver
services to those who want them badly enough to pay for them, and
encourage people to lower prices on services so that more people will
want to be able to pay for them. If ubiquitous access is a desired
outcome, something which can only be determined by a _political_
process (hopefully a democratic one), regulation of some kind is
essential. In this society, market and political processes for
allocation of resources will continue to exist in uneasy equilibrium.
That leaves us arguing over the details.
Which no doubt we will continue to do...
--pb
