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ron654 said over 1 year ago: Mistaken assumptions on Net Neutrality

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Kim,

Your video on net neutrality has some seriously flawed assumptions. While the specific case you make may be valid, your suggestion that large communications corporations are responsive to customer complaints is way off. These companies -- particularly the ones that are de facto local monopolies such as cable TV and wired phone companies -- make customer contact about problems as difficult as they possibly can.

They feature phone numbers that go to automated messages with no obvious bypass to humans. They have eternal holds on lines that do go to customer service reps. The customer service reps usually lack authority to do anything constructive when you finally reach them and, if they are trained at all, they are trained to be as resistant as possible to doing anything for the customer that would cost the company a cent. This does not even address the muddy legal quagmire of the contracts that they require for service.

These corporations have no real incentives to serve customers since the customers seldom have better options. In other words, they are as bad as the government and, within their field, they are virtually as powerful. This is why many of us feel the need for a government agency to limit their abuses.

The specific instance of Verizon and Google's proposal actually sounds reasonable. However, it is a "foot-in-the-door" situation and I am as leery of it for that reason as the NRA is of almost every "gun regulation" and as the "Pro-choice" advocates are of any restrictions to abortion. Freedoms compromised are seldom re-established.