Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!encore!bzs@encore.com
From: bzs@encore.com (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Networks, who pays
Message-ID: <4203@encore.UUCP>
Date: 15 Nov 88 20:04:12 GMT
References: <8811112231.AB02677@multimax.encore.com> <8811112252.AA25888@pinocchio.UUCP> <2220@ficc.uu.net>
Sender: news@husc6.harvard.edu
Reply-To: bzs@encore.com (Barry Shein)
Organization: Encore Computer Corp
Lines: 36
In-reply-to: jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell)

From: jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell)
>  Why do the pro-government types always claim that such goods or
>  services - such as a computer network - would only be provided
>  by a megafirm?  Obviously, no one firm could provide all we need
>  in this field, just as none could provide all we need in the way
>  of roads.  But a multitude of firms, competing and cooperating
>  as their interests dictate, could.

Perhaps one reason is that as of this writing the major wide area
networks in this country are all completely dependent on "megafirms"
(such as AT&T for the lines), and even they can't seem to get the
infrastructure going very well, at least there's a chance (and if you
don't think even huge companies like AT&T required the concentration
of funding via the govt think again, a lot of the wide area technology
was the result of military needs.)

Your last sentence remains total hypothesis, however.

>  The best way to stand still on any thing is to turn it over to
>  the politicians and bureaucrats.  Do we want something as vital
>  as computerdom's future monopolized by the folks who gave us
>  Korea, Viet-Nam, Watergate, Lebanon, Grenada, etc.?

How about the folks who gave us highways, bridges, men on the moon,
the Center for Disease Control, the ARPAnet, the Library of Congress?

Namely, us, we gave it to us, when we act in concert. There is no
doubt great need for reform, but don't confuse a need for reform with
a need for destruction, at least not until you're sure you have
something better to replace it. Libertarianism has a long way to go to
prove itself as viable, it defies 10,000 years of civilization
(usually consciously, claiming itself to be "The New Order".)

Unfortunately the mere mention of lower taxes mesmerizes many people.

	-Barry Shein, ||Encore||