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In the US we had it for a brief period of time. Then we got an FCC chair who not only took it away, but actively trolled people who were angry about it. (And th
by ineedasername 5y ago
In the US we had it for a brief period of time. Then we got an FCC chair who not only took it away, but actively trolled people who were angry about it. (And that's before we even get into the issue of the public comment ballot box getting stuffed by copypasta spam in favor of killing net neutrality and wink-and-nudge blind eye turned away from it.)
That's the double edged sword in the US of having executive level departments with wide latitude to set regulations with the weight of law behind them but not the same high barrier of changing them as it takes to change a law. Technically this allows agencies to be more nimble, or as much as possible in any lumbering bureaucracy. On the other hand it means that very important pieces of public policy are even further removed from election accountability and subject to the whims of different administrations.
Whether you're for or against it, the Keystone pipeline is a prime example of the insanity that results from this. It was approve & construction begun on one administration, a final portion for it put on hold by another, then opened again by a third, a fourth stopped it again resulting in its backers cancelling it (seemingly) once and for all. Forget about the difficulties of generation-long projects, this makes anything longer than 4 years highly uncertain.
- serenitylater 5y agoYou can have plenty of projects get done that take longer than 4 years. You will have problems getting projects done that half the country hates if it takes longer than 4 years. This seems like a feature not a bug.
- sudosysgen 5y agoIt's not about "half the country hates it", though. Plenty of projects have widespread support, but are only backed by one party (or no party). It's clearly a bug, as it causes undue preference for the status-quo above and beyond the popular will (and the common good).
- hackernewds 5y agosomething half the country hates can be good for the whole country. think COVID vaccines and lockdowns
- quantum2021 5y agoLike the lockdowns did jack. Just look at the numbers and the spread of the virus with lockdowns in place. Hell, look at the Chinese in lockdown still today. Lockdowns were all political and crushed a huge portion of this country that the one voting party didn't like.
- withinboredom 5y agoOne entire point of government is to work on multi-generational projects — like nuclear waste storage.
- landemva 5y agoMaybe there would be tangible progress on waste storage/ processing if government set standards and then got out of the way. That seems to be working in the area of space launches.
- ineedasername 5y agoIt's a feature and a bug. A bug because it doesn't take anywhere near half the country to block something or push it through. A vocal minority or well-funded politically connected group is all it takes. Refer back to my net neutrality example. Polls generally showed a significant majority of the public was in favor of net neutrality, I've seen polls peg it anywhere from 57% to 83%. Popular policies around the issue created by legislative statute instead of agency rules would have been a lot harder to repeal.