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1) Do you think it would be okay for a hardware store to price a shovel differently depending on what the customer wanted to dig? 2) The telcos never seem to r
by shanusmagnus 9y ago
1) Do you think it would be okay for a hardware store to price a shovel differently depending on what the customer wanted to dig?
2) The telcos never seem to reflect on the fact that the only reason people want broadband at all is because there are services that they want to access. So just by existing they're already getting their cut. It would be just as reasonable for Amazon and Netflix to ask Comcast for a cut of their revenue, since they're providing these attractive services that Comcast isn't paying a dime to provide.
- mediocrejoker 9y agoI think hardware stores are maybe not the best comparison because if a hardware store was doing that then it would be pretty easy for a competitor to open a hardware store across the street and undercut the first on shovels and steal all the business. I think this might be a better solution than a law that specifically mandates the price at which a hardware store can sell shovels, since I think that law would only address a very specific problem caused by a larger underlying issue. I think the shovel case at least, when the market can sort something out then it's "better" to let it do so. For Amazon/Netflix, at least on the surface, I would say that the ISP and the content provider can ask for whatever they want and whether or not they get it will be a function of how much each one needs the other. Perhaps ironically a very similar system to how internet peering currently works (the little guy pays the bigger guy for transit).
- NegativeLatency 9y agoTo agree with your initial point: hardware stores do sell different kinds of shovels, for different digging tasks.
- s73ver_ 9y agoThey do. But that's not the question being asked. It is, should a hardware store be able to charge different prices for the same kind of shovel?