Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly, and Unfair
from BillMoyers.com

 

 

 

Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age
by Susan Crawford

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press; Reprint edition (February 25, 2014)

Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market - it also threatens the economic future of America. This important book by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this book explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing.
 

Susan Crawford is undoubtedly a brilliant woman but to me she, with all of her perky congeniality, also seems naive.  She is concerned about what should be the case in a democratic society.  It seemingly hasn't occurred to her what has become increasingly apparent, which is that capitalism and democracy cannot co-exist. The monopolistic greed of capitalism has usurped the idealism of democracy and it no longer exists. Yes, we still embrace the concept of individualism, but what individuials want, is to acquire the affluence that capitalism offers.  Democracy is also incompatiable with racism and classism, both of which continue to infect the individual.  So it's the same ol same ol.  The "haves" enable corporate America because they are a part of it, and the "have-nots"  are penalized for burdening themselves with the baggage that hampers their escape from their dire circumstances..  Can these 2 divergent groups come together and overthrow the corrupt government that is victimizing them by being in cahoots with the bad guys???  Tune in tomorrow.