The left consists of two groups of people running on two parallel yet very different paths to oblivion.
The left’s leadership knows their huge government ideas are absurd and don’t work — but they’ll be in charge after the collapse they induce so they’re fine with it.
The left’s rank and file actually thinks more government equals better, despite centuries of evidence to the contrary.
Then there’s the tech world; by and large a subset of the left. These people should certainly know better about government sloth and general incompetence damaging their industry — likely the nation’s and the world’s fastest moving and best.
But the tech world has thus far remained steadfastly impervious to facts. That or they — like the left’s leadership — have an agenda all their own.
How else to explain this?
Large US Tech Firms Plan ‘Go Slow’ Day in Protest over Net Neutrality Rules
On Wednesday, these Internet companies will protest the federal government not unilaterally power grabbing “enough” authority over the Internet. And to demonstrate their displeasure with this lack of government control — they are pretending to slow down their sites.
Get that? To protest the Internet staying exactly the same as it’s always been — basically government-free — they will dramatically alter the Internet.
And get this — they are slowing the Web to demand more government impositions on it. Which if they get their wish will inexorably lead to it getting dramatically slower.
What’s the government track record on making things go fast? Department of Motor Vehicles, anyone?
A Fatal Wait: Veterans Languish and Die on a VA Hospital’s Secret List
Government ‘Falls Behind Building Targets’
Government Falls Behind in Prompt Payments to Suppliers
Government Falls Behind on Repayment Schedule for Foreign Oil Companies
Government is Slow to Invest In Cybersecurity
Speaking of tech again — how does the government do with technology?
A story titled, “Cost of ObamaCare Website Tops $1 Billion” reads, “A slew of management failures led to the site’s disastrous launch, according to a new GAO report.”
How’s it working now?
With ObamaCare Systems Still Slow, Backlog Builds Among the Uninsured
Shocker — it isn’t.
Why Government Tech Is So Poor
Government Tech Problems: Blame The People Or The Process?
Sadly, it’s “C” — all of the above.
How does the FCC itself do on tech?
Government Agency That Wants To Commandeer The Internet Just Had Their Website Crash — Twice
Comforting.
So why are these tech world denizens demanding greater government Internet involvement? Perhaps they do indeed have an agenda of their own.\
Like having the government mandate that they don’t have to pay for the unbelievable amounts of bandwidth they use. Crony socialism, anyone? “[Companies like] Netflix [are] looking to get Big Govs the world over to impose a whole new, ridiculously expansive definition of Network Neutrality.”
“Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that ‘net neutrality must be defended and strengthened,’ calling out giants like Comcast and Verizon for bad behavior,” according to a report in The Verge.
But this is fundamentally unfair, as I wrote here:
Charging Netflix for their exorbitant bandwidth use isn’t “bad behavior” – it’s basic economics. Imagine the government mandating that gas stations charge the same to fill up Escorts and Escalades.
If Netflix doesn’t pay for what it uses, all the rest of us do – in the form of higher prices for our Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Why should a grandmother who only emails her grandkids pay substantially more – to subsidize Netflix Ned and his twenty-movie-a-day download habit?
Bandwidth hogs? Netflix Now More Than 1/3 of Internet Traffic
So it turns out the tech world left is also part of the crony socialist “I’ve Got Mine” coalition. They’ve built their market share — on the backs of others. And now they want the government to mandate that their free ride remains free.
The rest of us will pick up their tab, and suffer the ever-slowing, economy-crushing dullness of a government-controlled Internet.
The neck the tech world left has grabbed — and wants to hand to the government for wringing — is their golden goose. They have to know this, right?
