Saturday, November 15, 2014

Obama's Latest Campaign Against Liberty: Net Neutrality is Back

The Los Angeles Times reports that following the elections, Obama has
"...called for "bright lines" to keep networks neutral: no blocking of legal services, no slowing of data speeds for certain users, no paid priority treatment and increased transparency." 
In other words, he wants to state to butt into the details of private business even further (because enough is never enough). He wants to take away choices for consumers and business; he doesn't want there to be the possibility for consumers to pay more for services they need more than other consumers.

Further down in the new article, we find these supportive comments from Netflix, one of the companies that would plainly benefit from "net neutrality" because, well, streaming movies costs more than most other online activities:
"We agree with President Barack Obama: Consumers should pick winners and losers on the Internet, not broadband gatekeepers," 
You'd think a company like Netflix would put more thought into their propaganda. Consumers pick all winners and losers, including internet companies. Degrading private property takes control out of the hands of consumers and puts it into the hands of the few: the state and special interest groups feeding off it's power.

The corporatist "mixed-economy" of modern America enables big business to capture more of the market than they otherwise would. If we're concerned about too few network providers, the solution is abolishing government regulations, not adding more.