4 ms·

I don't think it's that cut and dry. If people are being oppressed, why don't they leave? The innovations and benefits must outweigh the problems. I'm happy to

I don't think it's that cut and dry. If people are being oppressed, why don't they leave? The innovations and benefits must outweigh the problems. I'm happy to be a US citizen, with excellent buying power. What product is worst and more expensive that you have in mind?

cptskippy 6y ago
> If people are being oppressed, why don't they leave? It's not that easy. Assuming they can afford to leave, most cannot, the fact that they've lived their entire lives here and their whole support system resides here makes it hard. Many people aren't upwardly mobile, and things aren't bad enough to make them desperate. > What product is worst and more expensive that you have in mind? Privatized utilities. The pitch in the 90s was that you'd have a bunch of providers competing to offer lower rates and the result would be lower prices. The reality is that you pay a very high base fee (no longer subsidized in the rate), and then you pay a service fee to your provider. Most rates are promotional so once a year you shop around or call up your gas provider to negotiate like you would your ISP. Switching providers usually results in activation fees and other costs. This works great for large consumers (e.g. factories, businesses) who pay lower overall rates but the poor suffer. An example, I used $1.76 in natural gas last month but my bill was $36. I paid more in taxes ($2.04) than I paid for the gas. People in my state pay $32 a month in fees for the privilege of being able to pay for gas. That's on top of the deposit people with poor credit have to put down.
rch 6y ago
Community owned ISPs seem to outperform privatized providers in terms of customer value, even if achieving sustainable cash flow can prove challenging. -- https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34623859 https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34623859 -- https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/6611-report-municipal-fiber-in-the-united-states-an https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/6611-report-municipal-f...

cptskippy 6y ago

> If people are being oppressed, why don't they leave? It's not that easy. Assuming they can afford to leave, most cannot, the fact that they've lived their entire lives here and their whole support system resides here makes it hard. Many people aren't upwardly mobile, and things aren't bad enough to make them desperate. > What product is worst and more expensive that you have in mind? Privatized utilities. The pitch in the 90s was that you'd have a bunch of providers competing to offer lower rates and the result would be lower prices. The reality is that you pay a very high base fee (no longer subsidized in the rate), and then you pay a service fee to your provider. Most rates are promotional so once a year you shop around or call up your gas provider to negotiate like you would your ISP. Switching providers usually results in activation fees and other costs. This works great for large consumers (e.g. factories, businesses) who pay lower overall rates but the poor suffer. An example, I used $1.76 in natural gas last month but my bill was $36. I paid more in taxes ($2.04) than I paid for the gas. People in my state pay $32 a month in fees for the privilege of being able to pay for gas. That's on top of the deposit people with poor credit have to put down.

rch 6y ago

Community owned ISPs seem to outperform privatized providers in terms of customer value, even if achieving sustainable cash flow can prove challenging. -- https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34623859 https://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:34623859 -- https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/6611-report-municipal-fiber-in-the-united-states-an https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/6611-report-municipal-f...