Can I libertarian go back in time, kill their grandmother, and not be born?

[yesthattom]

Or in this case...

I'd like to hear from all my so-called libertarian (or Libertarian) friends about Net Neutrality. Businesses should be able to do whatever they want, right? Let the market decide! Oh, but wouldn't libertarians prefer the freedom that comes from having everyone equal on the internet?

Isn't it funny that anti-freedom companies are the lobbying against net neutrality by posing as libertarians?

You have 3 paragraphs each. Go.

Comments

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

As I've noted before, I'm not a doctrinaire libertarian. Every market has rules, and externalities. A properly constructed market tries to reflect externalities into prices, such that the market can do what does best without the unhappy side effects. This is why we have anti-pollution laws, anti-monopoly laws, and laws against unfair competition.

Telecommunications hasn't been a completely free market since Theodore Vail engineered the blessing of AT&T as a regulated monopoly in 1913 (and creating the FCC in 1934 didn't help matters either). The current mess is there because the flat-rate-for-bandwidth Internet is eating the telephone companies' lunch, and they've finally figured it out, and they desperately want to reverse the trend (or get statutory support to tax/charge it). If they fail, they're consigned to a commodity bit-pipe market with very thin profit margins, and endless capital expenditure requirements.

So, of course, they're trying everything they can think of, save actually spending the money required to upgrade their networks and compete properly, and they're lying about it because the general public is shocking ignorant. This is how most politicians get elected, after all: pandering.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure to remind you of this posting when next I see a Democrat campaigning on a platform that includes low taxes, limited government, and maximum individual liberty.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. My reply was completely uncalled for. I take it back. Mea culpa.

[pure-agnostic.livejournal.com]

I think that libertarians could argue for either side of this debate. What side libertarians endorse shows whether they are the "everyone should have equal access" types or the "get what you can for yourself" types.