No One Should Fear the Death of Net Neutrality

TL, DR - Giving the government additional power to regulate a $1 trillion dollar industry is never a good plan.

A bit more,

Net Neutrality isn't what you want it to be or what you don't want it to be, it is derived from the letter of the law. It appears that very few people actually know what powers are granted to the government by Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. Title II gives the government the power to impose rate-of-return, raise taxes, levy fees, review and approve/disapprove new business models or technologies, etc.

Is that really a big deal? That depends, does putting $1 trillion in GDP and 2.5 million jobs under the jurisdiction of a new regulatory regime seem like a big deal? Surely, the government wouldn't feel the need to pick winners and losers in this situation. The US government is so honest and so above reproach that it wouldn't be under the influence of the lobbying of Facebook, Google & Amazon. Right?

Title II also generates barriers to entry, that surprisingly, snagged Google Fiber when a citizen filed a complaint with the FCC citing NN rules. Google Fiber had the resources to battle the FCC over this but what about a startup that gets snagged by a similar complaint?

For those that do believe that NN is necessary, well the death of NN rules isn't the end. The future will bring about technology that challenges our current understanding of ISPs and the internet. NN would likely slow progress in some areas but innovation would eventually win out leaving us with another set of obsolete regulations on the books. Also, there are now economic studies out there that show no real winners or losers on the market side. The market has mostly shrugged off the on-again-off-again nature of the NN discussion over the years.

I like the way Tyler Cowen put it,

quote:

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I used to favor net neutrality, but I now think we’re at the point where we’ll do just fine without it.

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