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American Telecom companies have demonstrated that they will follow model 2. Its very surprising that people argue about these businesses in the hypothetical.

American Telecom companies have demonstrated that they will follow model 2. Its very surprising that people argue about these businesses in the hypothetical. America has only a few Telecom players. They will remain a few telecom players because fundamentally telecom has deep barriers to entry. And these players have a long history of hugely anti consumer moves, laziness, deceit, cabal like behavior. I really do not understand this, and hope someone can shed light on it. Why do people talk about these firms, and trust them to act as model businesses. 1) Are many americans unaware of the history of malifide actions by telecom firms? (colluding to drive down prices during auctions, not building the network they were given tax breaks too, already existent rent seeking behavior and attitudes) 2) Is there some other principle that they believe these firms will follow, that overrides the obvious business incentive to cheat? I don't get it.

therpe1 10y ago
> Its very surprising that people argue about these businesses in the hypothetical. I think this is standard operating procedure for conservatives. They provide extremely speculative theoretical arguments based on over-simplified and over-determined models to justify their policies. They don't ever point to real-world, historical data to demonstrate their thesis. When your committed to good ideology rather than good policy you have to be willing to make trade offs. > And these players have a long history of hugely anti consumer moves, laziness, deceit, cabal like behavior Yes, there is plenty of actual historical data pointing out the tendency of US telecoms to seek risk-free profits. The US probably has the least competitive telecom market in the world. This is common knowledge [1]. The idea that these extremely non-competitive firms can be given more power and they'll "innovate" is laughable. [1] http://www.economist.com/node/17800141 http://www.economist.com/node/17800141

therpe1 10y ago

> Its very surprising that people argue about these businesses in the hypothetical. I think this is standard operating procedure for conservatives. They provide extremely speculative theoretical arguments based on over-simplified and over-determined models to justify their policies. They don't ever point to real-world, historical data to demonstrate their thesis. When your committed to good ideology rather than good policy you have to be willing to make trade offs. > And these players have a long history of hugely anti consumer moves, laziness, deceit, cabal like behavior Yes, there is plenty of actual historical data pointing out the tendency of US telecoms to seek risk-free profits. The US probably has the least competitive telecom market in the world. This is common knowledge [1]. The idea that these extremely non-competitive firms can be given more power and they'll "innovate" is laughable. [1] http://www.economist.com/node/17800141 http://www.economist.com/node/17800141