> The bad guys here are the corrupt regulators, not the evil capitalists. Absolutely no reason to believe it must be one or the other. They are in fact working

> The bad guys here are the corrupt regulators, not the evil capitalists. Absolutely no reason to believe it must be one or the other. They are in fact working together. You propose that eliminating the government component would fix the issue, and I contend that eliminating the for-profit component would fix the issue. Both can be true. > Without the corruption, municipal fiber or the free market would work great. Entrenched networks are a well established phenomenon in relatively free markets. The cost to build a replacement for Facebook is relatively low, yet they still have a large moat due to their sizable subscriber base. In a physical system like a digital data network, the start up costs are much higher. It’s not a direct comparison to Facebook because one ISP is generally as good as any other, but generally it is difficult to compete with established companies when gaining a foothold involves a substantial investment from the outset. Finally I did directly address your main point, I’m not quite sure why we’re still at the “either government or private for-profit firms” stage of the discussion when co-ops are a viable third option: >> This last point is also why I would advocate for a co-op over government management, but I’d take either over for-profit networks.