Current mood:	gloomy
Current music:	Mono - Lost Snow
Entry tags:	corporations, government, internet, mother, net neutrality, taxes, telecom

In Which Our Narrator Argues for Net Neutrality Again
For me, the discussion about Net Neutrality is moot. Most of the communication lines in this country were paid for by tax money. Phone and cable line construction both have been subsidized in the United States from the beginning because companies had no incentive to put them to low-income neighborhoods, rural small towns, and other marginalized areas. Would tiny West Texas outposts of civilization like Cone, Tokio, or even my hometown of Coahoma have phones, Internet connections, or cable television today if the government hadn’t paid for it?

Take a look at your phone bill, your Internet bill, or your cable TV bill. Look for “infrastructure surcharges” or “911 maintenance fees”. Some are from the federal government, but every state has them too, some cities even do. You pay that money to the government, it turns around and pays it to the telecorporations so that they’ll run the lines out – and keep them running – to unprofitable areas.

The argument that the telecorps “own” the phone lines is about as silly as construction companies claiming they own the highways. A Granite Construction employee would laugh his head off at the idea his company owns the Marsha Sharp Freeway, a construction project funded entirely by taxes. If the telecom giants want to buy the lines by refunding every single cent back to the American taxpayer – not to the governments – directly, in cash, then maybe they have a case for it. Until then, they should keep their greasy mitts off my Internet. They’re providers only, like automobile manufacturers or gasoline companies. You pay them when you buy a car (computer), you pay them for the gas (ISP service), but the roads already belong to you and always have.