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Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl
I'm here.....I'm here. What seems to be the problem? South Korea is implementing a forward-thinking attitude to internet speed, connectivity, and bandwidth? And they are ahead of us? Troubling.
Diagnosis: Though it is not unknown for the occassional government program in some nation, somewhere, to get something right, time will tell as to whether this is a wise move on the part of the S. Korean government.
Remember when Japan thought subsidizing robotics would be a great idea? They developed a lot of fascinating innovations in the field, but look where it got them as a nation. Now they are struggling to stay competitive against other Asian markets that weren't quite so enlightened but had a more practical attitude.
Now, look where their efforts got us. Nice tech at bargain prices with relatively little effort on our part because there is never any demand for what they develop when they develop it. They paid for their attempt to bypass the natural progression of free exchange in more ways than one. Worse, they paid for it as a nation because it was a national initiative. What should have been an impressive series of market triumphs was cut tragically short by something as simple as basic supply and demand. The case for state foresight in new industries has already been made.
On to the US part of the equation. There was a time, not so long ago, when the US government still thought it was their onus to facilitate telecommunications. Anyone alive at the time will remember what a spectacular failure that was. The "deregulation"(read: limited, licensed, privatization with heavy regulation) of telecommunications led to a worldwide revolution in digital communications. The effect was so profound that we now have debates over the tremendous availability of data, whether it is to children or the quality of information or the ability and need of the average citizen to utilize it. The case for privatization, in any capacity, is already made.
So how does this all tie together? Well, what we're essentially looking at here, given the heavy regulation of US telecom industries under the FCC and the telecommuncications act of 1996, which was supposedly deregulatory but managed to somehow add nearly 10,000 pages of regulation to the registrar, is a match between a state initiative and a state intitiative. To put it simply, the US set a bar on what telecom industries could do, and South Korea has directed state resources at raising the bar, possibly without regard to the consequences. Perhaps they will be successful, or perhaps they will end up the victim of yet another unintended result of cramming people's own money down their throats in the name of a supposedly greater good.
Prescription: Remove taxes, spurious regulations, and subsidies for US business of any type (or at least anything that was lobbied for) and actually force them to compete by removing state trade barriers. It will cure what ails you. Side-effects may include complaining special interests and unemployed, politically-inclined rhetoriticians.
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Interesting post. However I would have to say privatization is a way to destroy an economy as Regan's policies destroyed the US economy, by killing the manufacturing basis, and when the IMF told Argentina to privatize they're assets, it destroyed that economy as well, completely. Riots were in the streets everywhere, though there was a positive side effect. Workers occupied the factories and to this day continue to do so. Along with special interests and imperialist propagandists; I don't think you will have any luck against those interests unless there is revolution. And USA literally has a lot of work to do.
You need to wipe out your congress, and start over. I recommend having public control over decisions, and regulations. The economic mistake USA made is letting its MNC's run like wild animals raping the world's resources, getting bigger and bigger, until the government politicians want to get the regulation back and introduce all these bureaucratic measures. This turns into corporatism or fascism, as your government only serves corporate interests. There needs to be a mass popular uprising of Americans to take control of these largest institutions because they are the one's destroying your country. Thats my take, but I think its to late, as the military industry, banks, IMF etc have all the control, and your country will go bankrupt with 15 trillion in debt owing to China. Corporate America will profit from it, because they'll just buy Every asset out there, probably wiping out small businesses, and the middle class will suffer. Of course that also brings the chance for Revolution