Big cable firms write bill to outlaw competitors

Exorbitant costs for phone, Internet, and cable TV service had long plagued the city of Wilson, North Carolina.

In northern Kentucky, our public officials wouldn't have done shit to remedy it. Once about 20 years ago, local cable regulators accepted free cable instead of clamping down on bad service. The corruption was endless. (Then they claimed the free cable was so they could monitor the cable system for "dirty" movies.)

But in Wilson, city leaders acted to make a difference: They started a new municipally owned service offering Internet, phone, and cable - to compete against the high costs charged by large providers. And if you use the city-owned service, it's much cheaper and faster than using the big companies. The city didn't even have to raise taxes.

But now, corporate overlords are crying to their cronies in the North Carolina legislature to quash this competition.

Time Warner Cable and Embarq have gotten legislators to introduce bills to outlaw community-owned broadband providers. Instead of improving their service to remain competitive, they want the government to crack down on their competition.

Make no mistake about it: These bills are designed to protect cable, phone, and Internet monopolies. It's corporatism at its worst.

Strangling competition is the corporate greed merchants' idea of "free market" - one of few common phrases in the English language that defies its own meaning. The "free market" is "free" until Big Business realizes it can't compete by offering shoddy service, so it demands government intervention to prop it up. Besides, isn't it the government that awards monopolies to big corporations in the first place?

This is little different from the "regulation for thee, not for me" philosophy that guides modern conservatism.

(Source: http://consumerist.com/5224578/time-warner-cable-cannot-possibly-compete-with-the-small-city-of-wilson-nc)