This is truly a miracle! For the first time in memory, there is an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with which I actually agree. Mostly. And it’s by Holman Jenkins, who is usually such a tax-cutting, market-loving, poor person-hating cretin that I am often amazed he is even literate. But here we are on the same page. He expresses his views in his usual caustic and hyperbolic fashion, but I’m on board with his analysis.
The issue is net neutrality, and the possibility of FCC regulations on the matter. Jenkins points out that while there is a theoretical possibility of carriers favoring their own content over 3rd party content, this has yet to actually happen. He also notes that carriers invest billions in the infrastructure needed to carry ever more data, and that they need to recoup that investment. Finally, he points out that if carriers do not charge differential rates to content suppliers, the obvious solution is to charge differential rates to content users, namely charging more for heavy bandwidth users, which is clearly an equitable solution. In all cases, I agree with Jenkins.
This is also rare for the Journal, but the first two letters to the editor regarding Jenkins’ column, which can be found here, are also quite reasonable.
Thoughtbasket 