On Tue, 18 Jun 2002 at 10:38am Nathan Newman wrote:
>
> Me-- I miss big bad Ma Bell, which benefitted consumers
> tremendously for decades. Productivity was high, prices
> fell continuously and the poorest customers benefitted
> most clearly. Competition has brought few benefits.
-On this we agree. I would love to see a REGULATED monopoly, -but not the oligopoly that exisits now. -And I'll be happy with the further consolidation of the -telecom industry when it is either nationalized or -meaningfully re-regulated.
My basic attitude is that the consumer advocates should drop all the nonsense calling for more competition and return to promoting rate and service regulation. I'm all for mandates that the cable and telephone companies be required to be content-neutral in broadband services and all the other benefits promised by "competition"-- I just think regulation is a better position for advocacy.
And I know the folks at CWA who work on these issues-- as long as the workers are union, they'd line up with consumers on those regulatory issues in a second.
-- Nathan Newman