Susan Crawford thinks the internet is too important to be left to the private market.

Check this out when you get a chance. Susan Crawford makes a hard case to argue against (although, try if you’ve got the gutz). The gist is Internet should be treated like a utility, set up through an infrastructure that private corporations legitimately can’t/won’t provide. People like to hate the idea of “government” because a lot of the folks running it are assholes, but this is exactly the sort of project we need governmental superpowers for. I don’t believe corporations are evil, but they are collections of people who want to make a profit. There’s nothing wrong with that, but some things like the highway system, national electrical grids and the internet just need to get done. They need to have the freedom to rise above the bottom line, to not just provide the best service for the people who have the most money. 

The most stunning points made in the article were about how places overseas can get up to a gigabyte for around $30/month. At the moment, I get 50mbs for around $60/month, and I consider myself lucky compared to some parts of the country. Later, Crawford says in spite of our shitty internet, our culture still excels at innovation. Imagine what we could accomplish if we weren’t being held back by our archaic technologies and business models. 

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