General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why is broadband more expensive in the US ? [View all]seabeckind
(1,957 posts)The same question can be asked about cell service.
Or health insurance.
Or health care.
Or energy.
Or transportation.
Or banking.
Or, most importantly, political choice and representation.
It is a systemic problem in our society caused by the laissez faire trend which enabled the breaking up of all those anti-trust regulations that were fought so hard for long ago.
I don't have the actual executive order on this pc (using the wife's) but there were 2 orders signed by Reagan which basically gutted the anti-trust oversight and yanked the teeth out of the gov't's competitive oversight.
Those were the straws.
After that it was just a matter of time before the cable companies could define their "competition" by dividing up the herd. Ie, each company bid on a corral. And after they got the corral they got to make the rules inside it.
Communications infrastructure would work well as a public utility. But we don't have those any more.