Net neutrality gone

[RicardoZ]

Genuinely curious, how exactly does the government protect monopolies and oligopolies?

They get in bed with corporations and big business to come up with regulations/fees/taxes/other red tape to make sure competitors can't get into the market.

Granted, that's not what's happening in the case of net neutrality, but you asked.

[Vyuvarax]

Genuinely curious, how exactly does the government protect monopolies and oligopolies?

By not enforcing anti-trust laws. Is this a real question?

[schwank05]

Same way all the other local businesses survive: provide a good service and hope to get a customer base. Can't guarantee success or luck anywhere you set up.

Pretty much this, I was against her doing the hair thing right out of high school, but its what she loves so being a good husband I took a room we weren't using at the time in our shop and made it a salon, just couldn't get the client's she needed... basically men cause there is no money in coloring women's hair. Now its nice she dosen't have the salon as I needed the space for storage anyway.

[-Nurot]

Actually The ACA caused me to drop my health insurance because they wanted to charge me $1900.00/ month for shit coverage. my wife closed down her Salon and got a job with benefits so we could get good affordable health insurance.

Pre-ACA 50 million were uninsured and that number was quickly rising. Plans were covering less and less and costing more and more. People often didn't leave/change their jobs simply because of fear of losing their coverage.

Anyone who makes under 400% of the poverty limit currently gets reasonable assistance with the rising costs. It's a shame with you and your wife having both started your own businesses, you couldn't afford a Gold or Platinum insurance plan for your family of 4+. That still doesn't mean you wouldn't have ended up without insurance if the ACA hadn't come along.

The protections afforded with the ACA, (like not being able to pull someone's plan because they have a major medical expense) is something this country needs. The ACA had noble intentions, but with insurace providers not wanted to play ball, and Republicans screaming the sky is falling for 8 years, you get what you get.

If there was a way to regulate the insurance providers we'd be better off. They are still making a very good profit, you can be sure. Just like cable companies they're pulling out of markets to leave 1 provider so the prices can soar without competition. The Republican solution is people having the freedom to not have insurance if they can't afford it. Why fix the problem when you can make people more free. So we get what we vote for.

Freedom for insurances companies to charge whatever they want.

Freedom for ISPs to charge whatever they want.

So for the foreseeable future think of it as a freedom for you to pay them more money, the Republicans think of it that way and they're lobbyists love it. I hope one day we can even deregulate price gouging and make American even greater. /s

[RobertoCarlos]

Pretty much this, I was against her doing the hair thing right out of high school, but its what she loves so being a good husband I took a room we weren't using at the time in our shop and made it a salon, just couldn't get the client's she needed... basically men cause there is no money in coloring women's hair. Now its nice she dosen't have the salon as I needed the space for storage anyway.

Everyone knows Men is the real money in hairdressing......not surprised your business is struggling.

Protip - Try target females for haircuts, they spend far more money on their hair than men do. Generally.

[masterhorus8]

I didnt know Obama was too weak minded to make his own decisions, well gee i guess its all the Republicans fault....

Just pointing out a fact. No need to get snappy.

[schwank05]

Sounds a lot like millennial bashing and not providing engaging work.

Oh its plenty engaging, not too many places you get to build 50+ year old cars from the ground up and customize them to be modern day works of art. But we do it, most people won't even work Overtime, hell Id love to get paid hourly so I could work 80+ hours a week and make bank. I just don't understand how people don't want to work and make more money.

- - - Updated - - -

Everyone knows Men is the real money in hairdressing......not surprised your business is struggling.

Protip - Try target females for haircuts, they spend far more money on their hair than men do. Generally.

But, they get their hair cut like once every few months most guys get a haircut every 2-3 weeks.

[Gestopft]

By not enforcing anti-trust laws. Is this a real question?

Yes, but to make a point. Complaining about the government in this case is ridiculous, because it boils down to: "that darn government is letting corporations have what they want- how about we reduce government and just let the corporations have what they want!" Getting government out of the way isn't a solution to oligopoly- it's having a government that actually enforces anti-trust.

[Yunru]

No we have Net Neutrality in Europe, it's not going to happen.

And there is also competition here, unlike in US where you got 1 provider on 1 place. I can chose 3-4 here no problem.

[schwank05]

Pre-ACA 50 million were uninsured and that number was quickly rising. Plans were covering less and less and costing more and more. People often didn't leave/change their jobs simply because of fear of losing their coverage.

Anyone who makes under 400% of the poverty limit currently gets reasonable assistance with the rising costs. It's a shame with you and your wife having both started your own businesses, you couldn't afford a Gold or Platinum insurance plan for your family of 4+. That still doesn't mean you wouldn't have ended up without insurance if the ACA hadn't come along.

The protections afforded with the ACA, (like not being able to pull someone's plan because they have a major medical expense) is something this country needs. The ACA had noble intentions, but with insurace providers not wanted to play ball, and Republicans screaming the sky is falling for 8 years, you get what you get.

If there was a way to regulate the insurance providers we'd be better off. They are still making a very good profit, you can be sure. Just like cable companies they're pulling out of markets to leave 1 provider so the prices can soar without competition. The Republican solution is people having the freedom to not have insurance if they can't afford it. Why fix the problem when you can make people more free. So we get what we vote for.

Freedom for insurances companies to charge whatever they want.

Freedom for ISPs to charge whatever they want.

So for the foreseeable future think of it as a freedom for you to pay them more money, the Republicans think of it that way and they're lobbyists love it. I hope one day we can even deregulate price gouging and make American even greater. /s

The ACA is a joke its not the affordable care act its the affordable insurance act, the real issue is that hospitals in the US are retardedly over priced, my last bill for one of the kids had a $9.00 bandaid on it...FFS.

[RobertoCarlos]

Oh its plenty engaging, not too many places you get to build 50+ year old cars from the ground up and customize them to be modern day works of art. But we do it, most people won't even work Overtime, hell Id love to get paid hourly so I could work 80+ hours a week and make bank. I just don't understand how people don't want to work and make more money.

Well sounds like you havent found any car people staff. Car people live and breath cars so you would assume if you can find them they don't mind working on cars all day and night

Ive only ever had one job that offered overtime and it got snapped up so much the company had to dial it back because the total hours for the month were getting nuts they couldnt pay it

[Vorkreist]

if you think this will be limited to the US you are deluded too.

US is simply first at draining the most money possible out of its markets. Countries will be copying this soon enough

Just because US is going full retard on something it really doesn't mean it will have to spread to the rest of the world. Those days are long over.
You should take a look at EU's general consumer policy direction compared to US. Common sense seems to prevail in other parts of the world as hard as it may be to believe.
And as a small note. Americans lack a bit of perspective in just how fucked up their system is concerning the internet. You have 3 big corps that already charge you absurd fees for a really shitty internet bandwidth and service quality with some throttling on top. Meanwhile in some european countries you get 1Gb band for 10 $ a month.

[Yunru]

Well some1 is very pissed:

The FCC has voted to remove your freedom to information. That said, this will not go unpunished. Anonymous ensures that @AjitPaiFCC, @Brendancarrfcc, and @Mikeofcc who voted to repeal #NetNeutrality, understand the mistake of taking away our freedom.


Jessica Rosenworcel‏Verified account @JRosenworcel
4h4 hours ago

The @fcc voted to roll back #NetNeutality today. History will not be kind to this vote to destroy Internet openness. But this is not over. I'm not stopping here or now--and neither should you. Let's keep up the fight. Let's keep raising a ruckus. The future depends on it.

https://twitter.com/LatestAnonNews



All known 18 states that are suing the FCC to preserve #NetNeutrality

We are encouraging more states to please join the fight to preserve the free and open Internet. We can't let the FCC get away with this.

[Krigaren]

What regulations regarding net neutrality did the FCC implement before 2015? That's an honest question as I don't know the answer. All that matters is what regulations are in force. Opinions and moral support are meaningless.

That's the thing - there are no regulations. There never was. What's been in place were FCC rules for net neutrality which they enforced in litigation and through fines. This is what Pai voted to remove, in addition to the FCC ruling that the internet should be considered a common carrier under Title 2.

Some of the key moments in the history of the rules:

In 2004 the FCC established a set of principles for network freedom, which was enforced via legal actions against telecoms that attempted to limit or restrict access, notably in 2005 against an ISP that attempted to block VoIP traffic.

In 2005 the FCC lost a court case that led to re-classification of DSL to an un-regulated information carrier from a telecom, resulting in the collapse of the local DSL competitive carrier market.

2007 the FCC ordered Comcast to stop blocking traffic to torrenting services, after it was found that Comcast was throttling or outright blocking access to BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer networks, citing that they were "preserving the open character of the internet" and that "network operators can't block people from getting access to any content and applications." This led to increased calls for legislation to protect net neutrality.

2008 the FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, stated that he will fight to prevent ISPs from interfering with subscribers internet access.

In 2009 the FCC proposed additional rules to their 2005 policy, requiring ISPs to disclose policies to consumers, and that wireless networks (cell phones) should be similarly subject to net neutrality rules.

In 2010 the FCC was ruled against by the D.C. court of appeals for their cease-and-desist order to Comcast, preventing them from slowing and stopping peer-to-peer traffic, citing that the FCC lacked the authority under Title One.

2010 the FCC approved the "FCC Open Internet Order", banning cable television and telephone service providers from preventing access to competitors or certain web sites such as Netflix. On December 21, 2010, the FCC voted on and passed a set of 6 net "neutrality principles", seeking to prevent ISPs from blocking or banning competitors, preventing them from creating tiered networks, and requiring ISPs to be transparent, among other things.

2014 the DC Circuit Court once again ruled against the FCC, saying they have no authority to enforce net neutrality rules as long as providers were not classified as common carriers under Title 2.

In Feb 2015, the FCC voted to apply Title 2 common carrier rules to the internet, with then chairman Tom Wheeler stating, "This is no more a plan to regulate the internet than the first amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concept."

In March 2015 the details of the FCC's new net neutrality rules were released, and in April they were published. This is what the FCC has just voted to repeal, indicating that the FCC is no longer interested in holding ISPs accountable to net neutrality rules, and to reverse the decision to classify the internet as a common carrier under Title 2.

So the tl;dr is that there were never regulations. Ever. The government had no hand in the workings of the internet, aside from the FCC attempting to enforce rules that would prevent ISPs from taking advantage of their consumers. Which Pai's FCC has just voted to repeal. Which still make's Vyuvarax's point: this is the first time the FCC has chosen to abandon net neutrality, and abandon consumers.

[Deleted]

laughing europeans.jpg

[Tiwack]

Pays $50 to access the Internet.
Pays $10 Google package fee to find out what Net Neutrality is.
Pays $10 Discussion Board package to comment on MMO-Champion that repealing this was a bad idea.
Pays $500 Pornography package fee to jerk off and forget about this disaster year of 2017 in America.

Where'd the soda go? Please drink verification can.

[Aydinx2]

Just because US is going full retard on something it really doesn't mean it will have to spread to the rest of the world. Those days are long over..

This is just wrong. Sure we probably won't lose net neutrality in the EU because of this, but most websites used (youtube, facebook etc.) are still hosted in the US, and it will effect EU consumers.

[RobertoCarlos]

Just because US is going full retard on something it really doesn't mean it will have to spread to the rest of the world. Those days are long over.
You should take a look at EU's general consumer policy direction compared to US. Common sense seems to prevail in other parts of the world as hard as it may be to believe.
And as a small note. Americans lack a bit of perspective in just how fucked up their system is concerning the internet. You have 3 big corps that already charge you absurd fees for a really shitty internet bandwidth and service quality with some throttling on top. Meanwhile in some european countries you get 1Gb band for 10 $ a month.

Well I can only speak for my country which falls under the amercia-canada-britian-australia-new zealand umbrella. And slowly but surely they all follow suit and for the most part have near identical laws but the countries on the right do have an advantage where they have minority ethic races like aboriginal or maori who have rights to the land where corporations cant completely stream roll their way in that easily as in america or canada so change is slower

[Nasuuna]

By not enforcing anti-trust laws. Is this a real question?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleco...ns_Act_of_1996

real shit show.

[Snes]

So ~83% of Americans didn't want the FCC to repeal net neutrality, yet they go ahead and do it anyways?

If words don't work, what options are you left with?