Internet Freedom

If there is one issue that demands a truly urgent action, it is the Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is a government regulation that says that internet providers can not discriminate against website content they are distributing. The Congress is currently debating a proposed measure of allowing internet providers to charge web sites for the level of access - basically regulating access to a website based on how much that website would be willing to pay them. What that means for the alternative news sources is that only those with funds would be able to get their message out, basically turning internet into cable TV. The future of the Internet is at stake, and we must do everything we can to raise the temperature on this issue. I don't think I even need to explain what such action would mean for political grassroots organizations and the future of citizen advocacy in our country. If there ever was a time to write or call your senator and congressman, that time is now, or just send them an email which can be easily done just by clicking on this link. If the Internet Neutrality is overturned, then further online political organizing on any issue will become increasingly difficult. That is why this is such an encompassing issue that can not be compromised.

Furthermore, I think this clearly illustrates why we should take great care every time corporate lobbyists start talking about "deregulation" and the beautiful freedom that such deregulation would ensure. After all, the current corporate campaign to overturn Internet Neutrality has been construed and marketed as an effort to "democratize" internet and free it from government constraints. The truth is it would only be free for those with money. It is the same logic that they used to deregulate radio and television markets, which of course led to our current situation where over 90% mainstream news (TV/Radio/Newspaper) is controlled by just five gigantic corporations. This is what inevitably happens when you have “Free” Market work its magic. In fact I would go as far as to say that the term Free Market itself is what’s called ‘a fucking oxymoron’. Market is a system of rules which allows us to exchange goods and services in orderly fashion, so it can not be free by definition. A corporation complaining that their rights are violated because they are unable to exclude certain websites from internet or that they can not dump dangerous chemicals in the vicinity of my backyard; is in the same vein as me saying that I should be able to break into a store, take a bunch of music cds, and sell them out of the trunk of my car because it is my god-given right to participate in the free market. The only time a particular corporation cares about free market is when deregulation benefits that corporation.

If we talk about deregulation, why don’t we start with pharmaceutical companies. Corporations that make medicine enjoy enormous protection from government regulation in terms of patents. Once a medicine or a medical treatment is invented, virtually everybody can replicate that and make money. The problem is it takes enormous amounts of money to conduct medical research, it is not cost effective and not something that free market could bear on its own. So pharmaceutical companies are allowed by law to sell their medicine for extremely high price once they invent it, and everybody else is forbidden from replicating it. But what if we deregulate that market and loosen restrictions on medical patents: that way our senior citizens could enjoy dirt cheap generic medicine right away, which they would certainly appreciate and vote for in droves if such option is put on the table. Even Bush was forced to admit during his presidential debate with Kerry that he wants to make generic medicine more available. Of course that didn’t translate into any meaningful action, but if he didn’t say that - he would lose the senior citizen vote. True, our medical research would come to a crawl, but that would solve the health care crisis, wouldn’t it? What is the point of making all of us pay for inventing medical treatments that fewer and fewer of us can afford?

I am not actually advocating such a stark change, but it just goes to show that every market situation was artificially created with certain goals in mind, there is no magical space with labor and capital in free flow. The government is supposed to protect its citizens from corporate entities and from each other, and it does that through regulation (law). There are many situations when a particular corporation would seek to limit my freedom of speech in some way, or destroy the environment that I live in, in order to make more money. The only way to prevent that is to remind our legislative and executive representatives in the government who they represent and who they work for – namely you and me.

Now there is a big difference between government regulating business, and the government actually running business. Conservatives like to scare with the image of “big” government taking over, and in a sense they are right, since a robust business community that is able to challenge totalitarian-leaning government is a necessary requirement for healthy democracy. Government should not be running any business, except for most essential public services. Rather the government, or more accurately, we the people, should be restraining business from infringing on public good, even while that business is innovating technologies and providing us with goods and services. If government takes over business in the command-style economy, that leads to the Soviet Union style of communism. However the opposite is just as true. If business entities grow too large and too powerful, they will take over the government, which will lead to economic fascism in the style of nazi Germany. Essentially both end up in the same place, just having taken different paths to the same point on the circle. That is why it is highly troubling to watch continuous erosion of our anti-trust laws, and growth of mega sized corporations that seem at times to be practically running our country. It doesn’t seem we have capitalism anymore, but some kind of corporate monopolism.

Welcome

I guess everybody has got to get a blog nowadays. Me and my friends bullshit about politics all the time, and one of my buddies told me I should start putting some of it in writing. Primarily so that it would not be lost to the future generations because that would be a tragedy. Basically this is a place for me and my friends to record, organize, and may be refine some ideas, but if people want to read and comment on this you are more than welcome. I am certainly not an expert on any of these issues and, unlike our current president, don't mind being proven wrong, since it is ultimately to my own benefit.

P.S. If you have a political blog and would like to exchange links, please don't be shy.