From: map@svl.cdc.com (Mark Peters)
Newsgroups: alt.cable-tv.re-regulate
Subject: Re: >>>>>Cablevision lies
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:58:10 GMT
Reply-To: map@svl.cdc.com
Organization: Control Data Corporation, Silicon Valley Operations

In <PB1PqB9w164w@tweekco.uucp> alizard@tweekco.uucp (A.Lizard) writes:

>Nothing you have said applies to situations that are quasi-public
>monopolies like the phone company, the electric/gas companies,
>and other situations where only one company can generally operate
>within a specific area (as in one network of wires, cables, pipes,
>etc.) 

Everything that I said applies in these cases.  Even if it were
true that only "... one network of wires, cables, pipes, etc."
were possible (which it certainly is not), it wouldn't make
competition impossible.  For example, the delivery medium might
be owned by one company, but usage rights leased to many companies
(this is done today with telephones).  And as I and others have 
pointed out, certain services compete with different kinds of
services in the same general category -- e.g., cable tv versus
video rentals, movies, etc.

>      and that receives permission from a state, region, or
>municipality to operate within its area.
>Theory behind regulation of these utilities is that since they
>have been given essentially, a license to make money, that they
>should be prevented from turning it into a license to steal, the
>license having been granted by Congress after heavy lobbying from
>the cable companies. 

It is precisely the receiving of "... permission from a state, region,
or municipality ..." and the granting of "... a license to make money ..."
that is the source of the problem.  The instant the coercive force of
the government is put behind a business venture, the "customer" of
such a business becomes irrelevant to its success or failure.  The
degree of irrelevance is proportional to the degree of force applied,
with "customers" being totally irrelevant to a government granted
monopoly, slightly less irrelevant to a heavily subsidized business,
and slightly less still to a lightly subsidized business.

A company that is backed by government force, or one that is supported
to any degree by tax money *does* have a license to steal -- and 
every taxpayer is a victim.  This is particulary true of taxpayers who 
want to compete against the government aided business -- they are
being forced to bankroll their competitors.  

In my judgement, the businessmen who actively lobby for the granting of
monopolies and/or subsidies are despicable.  These people are
essentially asking the government to give them permission to commit 
crimes.  These "political entrepeneurs" don't rely on productive
efficiency for their success (and they probably can't) -- they would
rather have the government deliver their "customers" at the point of
a gun. 

> If one had a choice of multiple service providers
>that allowed competitive choices of service, then your statements
>would make sense. Your knee-jerk reaction to anything which might
>interfere with the "God-Given" right of any businessman who wants
>to separate people from their money by any means necessary reflects
>unfavorably on your intelligence.

We do have a choice, and we would have more if the government would
quit interfering.  There is no such thing as a "God-Given" right
of any kind, and I never said or implied that there was.  In addition,
I did not state or imply that a businessman has a right to earn
his profits by "... any means necessary ..." -- I stated that
he has a moral right to any profits that he earns *without* physically
coercing people, i.e., by voluntary trade on an open market.

>If a businessman doesn't want to be 
>"enslaved", he should not get involved with regulated monopolies.

Regulation (including the granting of monopolies by government) *is*
enslavement -- and that was the whole point of my posting.

Your emotional reaction to my posting is curious -- if I'm so clearly
wrong, why do you find it necessary to resort to argument ad-hominem?

--
Mark A. Peters                              ****** ======================
Control Data Systems, Inc.                  ****** == "What a save!!!" ==
Internet: map@svl.cdc.com                   ****** == "What an idea!!" ==
Newsgroups: alt.cable-tv.re-regulate