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Elon Musk’s DOGE is growing desperate for a “win”
(newrepublic.com)
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this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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politics
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There is no point in capping fiber speeds. Either that capacity is in use or it isn't. It isn't like water, where a resource is depleted from usage.
Aside from that, I agree with your concept of the government providing all the essentials. Capitalism is great for providing products that suit a person's individuality, but it sucks at ensuring the survival and wellbeing of people.
Ok, now that I've had a bit of sleep (,3rd shifter here) how about the government owns the fiber a sells access to the for profit companies. But there is no monopolies so there is competition and every company is required to offer a basic package that is low cost and has enough bandwidth for the average work from home video meeting. Oh yeah, and no data caps.
After that they can increase prices and offer more services. And if somewhere like farm country isn't being served by any of the for profit companies, then the government corporation could set up an ISP and serve those citizens.
That is local loop unbundling. Anyhow, as I said, no point in capping data speed. Society benefits from faster internet - less congestion, transactions like stocks, purchasing goods, and Zoom meetings are all faster or more reliable. It is a type of infrastructure that benefits civilization, in ways far more beneficial than raw money itself. Time is the most valuable thing for every human, since you can't buy more and it is always depleting. The less time people spend on slow internet, the more they can use it for other things.
Money should not, must not, be the purpose of civilization. That is just enslaving humans to it. We invented it to save time, and shouldn't lose sight of that.
I have been approaching this from a middle of the ground standpoint. Basically I know that a large enough percentage of Americans would reject this as "evil socialism" so putting caps on the government industry at first would be a Trojan horse to get a footing and get society comfortable with the idea.
Ultimately I would like to see companies have to compete with government offered products and services, but I just don't see it being feasible in our current political climate. Sadly I think it will either take generational change to get it done, or a more kinetic change that would harm the country and take far longer to recover from.
Honestly, I don't think the middle path works. At least, not when it comes to major turning points in society. Elon is chainsawing our social security, just to run up his high score. I think people will be ready for a different way, now that the billionaires have been mask off. In my opinion, people prefer clear leadership over something ambiguous. They want to feel confident in their leaders, which is why Trump, despite being evil, took the lead against a deteriorating Biden and a weathervane Harris. Pit him against someone of greater conviction like Bernie or AOC, and I expect they would take the lead of any conversation.
In any case, we will see within 5 years what way the wind blows. Hopefully towards a better place than where we are headed right now.
I honestly don't think even bold leadership would work at this point. Washington has spent so much time brainwashing the public to fear socialism that any bold leader on the left who suggests a plan like that without first kneecapping it would be killed in the polls because someone on the right would scream socialist and enough of the population would turn on them. And no amount of reminding the public about public roads, police, firefighters, libraries, ect. would change their minds. In my option it will take generational change to get past that mindset.