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New York State has the second highest debt of any state - something like $300 Bn. Muni-bonds may be tax free, but they aren't risk free, so that could be an inf

New York State has the second highest debt of any state - something like $300 Bn. Muni-bonds may be tax free, but they aren't risk free, so that could be an influencing factor. It's also possible that New York is heavily bureaucratic and subject to extensive lobbying, especially by NBC and, by extension, Comcast, which would much rather extend gradually into the rural areas than compete with local government. The economic reason that internet hasn't spread to every rural household is because there isn't enough demand (in terms of money, not general interest) to pull suppliers out there. If we're going to assume that privacy has value, then allowing providers to have access to consumers' privacy would increase the demand and could help reduce the burden on municipalities or companies to extend broadband. But if we're going to begin every discussion with privacy being protected by default, then costs are going to be higher since the customer will be forced to absorb the costs.

PaulHoule 10y ago
New York is the 4th largest state in terms of population, so obviously it is going to have a big debt compared to, say, Rhode Island. New York has a particularly pathological state government because if you deleted New York City and it's environs, it would be a red state. Thus you have the representatives from Queens who think the government has to subsidize off-track betting to save jobs as well as your share of tea party types. The quality of public services is excellent (they hired a friend of mine to write printer drivers for IBM mainframes fast enough that they can turn around paperwork in 2 days even at peak times) but the level of corruption for elected officials is legendary. The money argument has nuances. I pay $90 a month for 2 Mbps DSL. From the viewpoint of the phone company, there already is competition for fiber -- they can get $90 a month from me and pay their shareholders a dividend larger than earnings (in fact, pay a dividend even when earnings are negative!) Maybe they could charge $120 a month for fiber, but they could not charge a lot more than that, but from the viewpoint of their investment, they are only getting an extra $30 a month. Now, a newcomer could get $120 a month, but they would split the market, and some people are going to look for the low cost solution, particularly when the profits the phone company is making are already insane and they could be offering the same service for more like $50. Probably the most practical situation (what is supposed to happen in my valley) is to work with an incumbent (Charter) to extend service to less profitable areas, because frankly, Charter makes money hand-over-first in all the rest of the areas.
- bradleyjg 10y ago
  New York has a particularly pathological state government because if you deleted New York City and it's environs, it would be a red state. That alone isn't enough to explain the dysfunction. If NYC and its environs were more or less homogeneous it would dominate the state and the red parts wouldn't matter. The problem is that there's a three way split -- NYC is 42% (but parts of each of the outer boros are more suburban than urban), Nassau/Suffolk/Westchester is 20%, and the rest of the state is the other 38%. The suburbs of NYC hold the swing votes and are some of the most corrupt parts of an already corrupt state.

PaulHoule 10y ago

New York is the 4th largest state in terms of population, so obviously it is going to have a big debt compared to, say, Rhode Island. New York has a particularly pathological state government because if you deleted New York City and it's environs, it would be a red state. Thus you have the representatives from Queens who think the government has to subsidize off-track betting to save jobs as well as your share of tea party types. The quality of public services is excellent (they hired a friend of mine to write printer drivers for IBM mainframes fast enough that they can turn around paperwork in 2 days even at peak times) but the level of corruption for elected officials is legendary. The money argument has nuances. I pay $90 a month for 2 Mbps DSL. From the viewpoint of the phone company, there already is competition for fiber -- they can get $90 a month from me and pay their shareholders a dividend larger than earnings (in fact, pay a dividend even when earnings are negative!) Maybe they could charge $120 a month for fiber, but they could not charge a lot more than that, but from the viewpoint of their investment, they are only getting an extra $30 a month. Now, a newcomer could get $120 a month, but they would split the market, and some people are going to look for the low cost solution, particularly when the profits the phone company is making are already insane and they could be offering the same service for more like $50. Probably the most practical situation (what is supposed to happen in my valley) is to work with an incumbent (Charter) to extend service to less profitable areas, because frankly, Charter makes money hand-over-first in all the rest of the areas.

bradleyjg 10y ago
New York has a particularly pathological state government because if you deleted New York City and it's environs, it would be a red state. That alone isn't enough to explain the dysfunction. If NYC and its environs were more or less homogeneous it would dominate the state and the red parts wouldn't matter. The problem is that there's a three way split -- NYC is 42% (but parts of each of the outer boros are more suburban than urban), Nassau/Suffolk/Westchester is 20%, and the rest of the state is the other 38%. The suburbs of NYC hold the swing votes and are some of the most corrupt parts of an already corrupt state.