U.S. steers it toward the elite

Net neutrality seems threatened. This is ridiculous because America, the inventor of the Internet, set the original, world-wide standard of freedom. Huge technology advances in many areas have resulted. The ideological conservatives on the Supreme Court are now doing whatever they can to serve the interests of the elite and not treat the Internet as a common carrier like the entire free world.

In addition, we are now 14th in bandwidth and connectivity behind nations like Latvia and Bulgaria. Korea’s bandwidth is over 100 megabytes per second, about five times faster.

Why? Partially because our dysfunctional government has created a marketplace that looks like capitalism about as much as Russian oil. Comcast premium Internet is still slow by world standards. Also providers have squandered government subsidies and lined their pockets at consumer expense.

Some laugh at Al Gore and his claims at being on the ground floor of the Internet. The truth is that he was highly instrumental in its initial stages. And if he had been president, we wouldn’t be bundling services we don’t want and paying too much to the one half-decent Internet connection in town. When will our government ever again act in service of all instead of a pseudo, near religiously fervent, warped “capitalism”? If they had been around during Eisenhower’s administration, they would have called for privatization of the interstate highway system. To the highest bidder.

Rick Walker

Snohomish