4 ms·

You think the internet would be just as efficiently run if the government controlled it without a profit incentive? I think the left are naive to how lazy peop

You think the internet would be just as efficiently run if the government controlled it without a profit incentive? I think the left are naive to how lazy people are without the right incentives, and how without a monetary incentive office politics can be ridiculously crippling. Maybe the HN perspective is driven by the fact that open-source in software engineering has flourished - leading many to think that great things can be built without monetary incentive. Or perhaps its because they are surrounded by very smart people and start believing that the rest of society operates at the same calibre. There is enough politics involved inside companies where huge monetary incentives are up for grabs, when you take away this monetary incentive, it becomes insanely political.

therpe1 9y ago
As usual, "the right" likes to speak of "incentives" like they are these magical fairies that overdetermine human behavior. Let's look at some actual facts in the real world. Compare the internet infrastructure of Britain, France and South Korea to the US. In all of these countries the internet backbone and especially the last mile of local networks is largely owned and maintained by the government. And in all of these countries the internet is generally faster, more widely available, and cheaper than what you see in the US. In fact when you compare broadband penetration in the OECD you find that (1) the US barely makes it into the top 20 and (2) every country ahead of the US employs the government lease model. It's gotten to the point that even a few conservatives who are honest enough will admit what is the very obvious reality [1]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/americas-10-year-experiment-in-broadband-investment-has-failed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/americas-...
coldpie 9y ago
Water and streets are doing relatively well. Any problems lately have occurred after Republicans cut infrastructure spending.

therpe1 9y ago

As usual, "the right" likes to speak of "incentives" like they are these magical fairies that overdetermine human behavior. Let's look at some actual facts in the real world. Compare the internet infrastructure of Britain, France and South Korea to the US. In all of these countries the internet backbone and especially the last mile of local networks is largely owned and maintained by the government. And in all of these countries the internet is generally faster, more widely available, and cheaper than what you see in the US. In fact when you compare broadband penetration in the OECD you find that (1) the US barely makes it into the top 20 and (2) every country ahead of the US employs the government lease model. It's gotten to the point that even a few conservatives who are honest enough will admit what is the very obvious reality [1]. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/americas-10-year-experiment-in-broadband-investment-has-failed https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/americas-...

coldpie 9y ago

Water and streets are doing relatively well. Any problems lately have occurred after Republicans cut infrastructure spending.