Planning Every Home
Here is a perfect example of the planning mentality driven by the need for order.
Arstechnica rails "We're in dire need of a national broadband strategy" because we have less broadband than other countries. Seeing something perceived to be a problem, the immediate conclusion is that government must fix it. Clearly, if the US is falling behind other countries in some area which the author deems important, then the US government must intervene on its behalf and both determine what is "wrong" and also "fix it."
Arstechnica links to further explanation of the right "strategy" and how our current one is wrong. They complain that the government "strategy" relies too much on the free market. The government says that intervention will distort the market and Arstechnica replies :
Yes, its too much to ask. The assumption is that government must determine what the "right amount" of broadband is. Further, the assumption is that government should set the goal, determine whether it is being met and why, and finally take action to reach that goal. But, my dears, that is planning. It is a planning mindset, and leads to planning of the economy.
Just as you don't want government to ensure that chickens are raised and killed and delivered to your door, based on some fallacious notion that it is government's job to put "a chicken in every pot," neither should we expect government to ensure that we have broadband in every town or fiber in every home.
It is actually conceivable that we have the right amount of broadband right now. This may not be a "market failure." In fact, we could probably never determine whether there is some kind of failure here - be it caused within the market or by government. We can't know the "right amount" of broadband. But, also, here is the kicker:
I have lived in rural New Mexico. I know the facts. You can get satellite internet in the furthest reaches of the most absurd nooks and crannies of the four corners states and across the most ridiculous expanses of desert - for cheap. For much less than the median rural New Mexico household spends on other luxury items. If they want it, they can get it. This is true across the country - either satellite or cable or DSL is offered everywhere (the map shown by Arstechnica confirms this; nearly every spot on it has some kind of broadband, just apparently not as much as they have in Australia).
If demand is low, then fewer services are offered. In other words, if they don't want it, they don't get it. So it isn't there. If they do want it, guess what, someone offers it. If they want it, they can get it.
If they want it, they can get it.
One more time: we don't need government to spoon feed us.
Arstechnica rails "We're in dire need of a national broadband strategy" because we have less broadband than other countries. Seeing something perceived to be a problem, the immediate conclusion is that government must fix it. Clearly, if the US is falling behind other countries in some area which the author deems important, then the US government must intervene on its behalf and both determine what is "wrong" and also "fix it."
Arstechnica links to further explanation of the right "strategy" and how our current one is wrong. They complain that the government "strategy" relies too much on the free market. The government says that intervention will distort the market and Arstechnica replies :
Is it too much to ask for some sort of vision? Some sort of leadership? Something along the lines of "a chicken in every pot and fiber to every home by 2012"?
Yes, its too much to ask. The assumption is that government must determine what the "right amount" of broadband is. Further, the assumption is that government should set the goal, determine whether it is being met and why, and finally take action to reach that goal. But, my dears, that is planning. It is a planning mindset, and leads to planning of the economy.
Just as you don't want government to ensure that chickens are raised and killed and delivered to your door, based on some fallacious notion that it is government's job to put "a chicken in every pot," neither should we expect government to ensure that we have broadband in every town or fiber in every home.
It is actually conceivable that we have the right amount of broadband right now. This may not be a "market failure." In fact, we could probably never determine whether there is some kind of failure here - be it caused within the market or by government. We can't know the "right amount" of broadband. But, also, here is the kicker:
I have lived in rural New Mexico. I know the facts. You can get satellite internet in the furthest reaches of the most absurd nooks and crannies of the four corners states and across the most ridiculous expanses of desert - for cheap. For much less than the median rural New Mexico household spends on other luxury items. If they want it, they can get it. This is true across the country - either satellite or cable or DSL is offered everywhere (the map shown by Arstechnica confirms this; nearly every spot on it has some kind of broadband, just apparently not as much as they have in Australia).
If demand is low, then fewer services are offered. In other words, if they don't want it, they don't get it. So it isn't there. If they do want it, guess what, someone offers it. If they want it, they can get it.
If they want it, they can get it.
One more time: we don't need government to spoon feed us.
Labels: planning
posted by liberty at
10:38 AM
1 Comments:
This essay is excellent. Yet another example of why government centralized planning fails, and omnipotent gov't isn't all that clever.
One of the implications of improved cryptography is the opportunity to make economic transactions truly private, so that it becomes difficult or even impossible for gov't to monitor, regulate, prohibit, or tax them.
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