I'm not sure I buy this "all was chaos, and then the government brought order" narrative. I'm just as apt to believe that the system self organized as people f

I'm not sure I buy this "all was chaos, and then the government brought order" narrative. I'm just as apt to believe that the system self organized as people figured out what worked in a new situation. Anyway, the "tragedy of the commons" problems you get with spectrum and such-like call for legal solutions, not regulatory ones. You need clear precedents and fair courts. But that's not the situation. We have monstrously complex regulation and federal intervention instead. The original justification for all the telecommunication regulation was that phone and telegraph lines are a "natural monopoly" and resources are wasted by allowing many competitors. I believe this original justification affects the current situation.