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Does classifying them as utilities simply lock them in? There's no special recognition given to them currently, they are just big business that can get beat by

Does classifying them as utilities simply lock them in? There's no special recognition given to them currently, they are just big business that can get beat by other businesses. If you make them a utility, you're giving them recognition and connecting the to government in ways specific to them. Maybe they would have been beaten given a couple decades, but with the above scenario you've simply ensured they'll be around for 80 years and we have to deal with their boring and uninnovative products. My perhaps naive belief is the only thing stopping these companies is outside ambition and will. Is this overthinking the utility thing? It seems so defeatist and reactionary. Oh no, nobody has beaten Facebook after 13 years, it's never gonna happen.

AndrewKemendo 9y ago
If you make them a utility, you're giving them recognition and connecting the to government in ways specific to them. The government could arguably do two things here: 1. Tell them that they have to comply with common carrier style rules for any infrastructure that is deemed utility like 2. Nationalize the services which are utility like Both are politically hard to do with #2 being arguably impossible in the US. Hell, even the railroads are still privately owned - despite the monopoly hell they went through with Roosevelt. If anything would happen though it would be #1 as it's fairly straight forward like the FCC did with ISPs under Title II - now repealed. Again, politically difficult.