I’m pretty happy with my “free” two day shipping and the occasional same day delivery. YMMV
What if Amazon charged you more for shipping if you bought a Craftsmen tool then if you bought a Black and Decker tool. Would you be happy with that?
Why would I care about that?
And this shows that you just don’t care. Why would you care that someone has to pay their ISP more to access Netflix than to access Hulu? I guess you wouldn’t.
From now on, just preface your net neutrality arguments with “I don’t care if people pay more to access certain web sites than others” and it will save everyone the hassle of discussing it with you.
How about this: What if your electric bill went up or down depending on the brand of appliances you plugged in your home? If you use Kenmore appliances, you only get charged $1 a KWH. But if you use (some other brand that I’m too lazy to look up), your electric company charged you $2 per KWH.
Do you care about that? And if so, what if the electric company MADE appliances that they only charged you 50 cents per KWH. Don’t you think you would switch to the electric company’s appliances? And what if the electric company only provided electricity to other brands 50% of the time? If you didn’t like that, would you say “Just switch to a different electric company!”?
I gather that the December 14 action takes place at a meeting of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (??) of the FCC. Or is it some other subset of the FCC, it’s primary movers and shakers or something?
Without urging anyone to any specific action, I shall mention that it is my own inclination to contact the individuals who would be in attendance, the decision-makers who have the direct say-so.
Best I can find on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee is this page but note the lack of direct telephone numbers. If anyone has a clearer sense on who should be called, if a person wished to call, and could direct me to that information, I would find that useful.
Apologies to the mods if this is too close to being a call to action. I’m just trying to facilitate my own ability to do action.
You could make an argument why I should
Who is making up the difference between the $1 Kenmore appliances are charged and the $2 everyone else is?
Kenmore, initially, the cost of which is then passed on to all of Kenmore’s customers.
So you’re paying more for Kenmore appliances and either more or the same for a less functional electrical system. Or you’re paying more for the less functional electric system, alone. Or your bought-and-paid-for Maytag appliances simply won’t work on your electrical system.
That’s no way to run an internet.
Consumers that use their stove a lot, for example, will buy Kenmore to take advantage of the lower electricity cost and those that don’t will buy Maytag. Plus, it gives Kenmore incentive to optimize their energy usage. They can make refrigerators with a big thermal sink to take advantage of cheaper overnight electricity costs. Everyone wins.
So you’re going to go right out and buy all new appliances? Or maybe just stop making toast except between 2 and 4 AM, when it’s a little bit cheaper?
No, the only ones who win are Kenmore and Kenmore Electric.
Your faith in the invisible hand of the free market is charming.
Do you believe that markets ever fail? Is there such a thing as a public good? When the benefits of bad acting in a market are concentrated, but the harms are diffuse, is there a place for regulatory action by the government on behalf of the harmed?
If I don’t have a Kenmore now, nothing changes for me. I just don’t get the subsidy that Kenmore is providing their clients. If the Kenmore offer is attractive enough for me, I might go out and buy new appliances.
I don’t see why any of this is a problem.
*First they throttled Netflix out of existence, and I said nothing, for I was not a subscriber.
Then they squeezed etsy off the map, and I was silent, for I never used it.
Then they blocked FoxNews, but I got over that because they offer me a handy news service directly.
Everything costs more on Amazon now, Facebook crashes a few times a day, and youtube is hit-and-miss, but BigISPNews has explained to me that this is the new normal, and we should STFU and be content that we have any internet at all.*
Nothing changes for you? You mean other than the fact that you’re paying more for using your non-Kenmore appliances? If they’re usable at all?
You call it a subsidy, but I very much doubt that you’ll see any significant subsidies. And any that are offered will have their cost passed along to you when you buy new appliances.
It’s a lose-lose situation for everybody but Kenmore and Kenmore Electrical. That’s why it’s a problem.
Do you have something against DSL? 
I did a quick search, and here are the top 18 providers in San Diego. Looks to me as if AT&T has a higher rating. Unless for some reason you are only wanting broadband cable as your only option. Personally, I get fine bandwidth through my home DSL connection and as my only broadband choice in my area is Comcast, which I hate with the fire of 10,000 suns, I’m fine with my choices.
I’m not paying more for non-Kenmore, I’m paying less for Kenmore because Kenmore is chipping in $1 a KwH. Everyone was paying $2 a kwH before, and now some are paying $1. Nobody is worse off.
I think you mean the cost will be passed along to me if I choose to buy Kenmore appliances. If I don’t, then there’s no additional cost passed on to me.
Nobody is losing in the scenario as laid out.
Your scenario is a fiction. Everyone was paying $1 before. Now some are still paying that if they have the right appliances. Everyone else is paying $2.
This is nothing to do with big guy vs little guy… it’s about being the first railroad to lay track through a narrow mountain pass, then getting filthy rich forever because the pass is too narrow to lay a second track. The price of cabbages should reflect the quality of cabbages, not which railroad happened to develop the mountain pass that the cabbage has to pass through. That’s how it works if you want an efficient market in goods and services. Otherwise, the price of your products isn’t related to quality, it just reflects who developed the infrastructure first.
If the power company randomly decides to double everyone rates then of course they are worse off. Kenmore then subsidizing their customers a $1 doesn’t harm anyone.
Until someone invents a road network and long-haul trucks, which totally change the equation. I think that’s something a lot of folks worried about this thread are missing. If those ISP’s really started making things difficult and really try and squeeze the public then I foresee technological development that essentially renders things like broadband networks (something that’s a pretty old technology) getting replaces by wireless systems and ISPs who see a large benefit in not fucking around and pissing off their customers. Several companies have looked into tethered balloon systems, for instance, and there are other wireless systems that are available for backhaul today and will be even more so in the future. We are currently, in the US, tied to an older infrastructure and because of that a lot of these companies already hold that over people’s heads (the reason I really hate Comcast is because of how they have deliberately fucked with their Pac-12 app and don’t allow it to be put on AppleTV or Roku or the Firestick…it’s SO slimy, and even though I don’t use it my folks do).
I think that we should have stayed with Net Neutrality for several reasons, but I don’t think this is going to be the end of the world or the end of the internet in the US. I think companies who try and do some of the stuff folks are suggesting in this thread are going to find out that people will take their business elsewhere. Sure, in some locations in the US the choices are (currently) pretty limited…but at most there are several choices, and I think that will only get more down the road.