{"id":2837,"date":"2017-11-25T10:17:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T01:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-11-25\/2837"},"modified":"2017-11-25T10:17:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T01:17:51","slug":"on-governments-use-of-force-and-net-neutrality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2017-11-25\/2837","title":{"rendered":"On Government’s Use of Force, and Net Neutrality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f\/1.4 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f<\/span>\/4.5, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nRock-Garden Detail<\/span>\nTenjuan Temple (\u5929\u6388\u5eb5), Kyoto Japan\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n

A thought process:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  1. I like<\/span> cookies.<\/li>\n\n
  2. I love<\/i> free cookies.<\/li>\n\n
  3. Gee, it would sure be nice if cookies were always free, don't you think?<\/li>\n\n
  4. The government should compel, by force of law, bakeries to give cookies away for free!!<\/li>\n\n<\/ol>\n\n

    At what point do you think the thought process crossed the line? If you like<\/span> cookies, I bet you<\/span> agree with #2 and #3, so why\nnot agree with #4? Why not compel<\/span> bakeries to give cookies away?<\/p>\n\n

    By their very definition, laws and regulations compel people to act a certain<\/span> way, whether they like\nit or not. It removes<\/span> their right to do as they please. This is often a good<\/span>\nthing; I'm glad that society removed your right to take my car whenever you feel like it, for example. But as\nthe<\/span> cookie example shows, forcing someone else to do something that benefits you is not always what a\ngood<\/span> and just society calls for. We show restraint<\/span> and consideration in where we invoke\ngovernment power unto others, as at the same time we expect restraint and consideration in government's intrusion into our own\nlives (especially if we make the occasional batch of cookies ourselves).<\/p>\n\n

    So, when contemplating laws and regulations (and taxes, for that matter), where society will use force to compel behavior, it's\nnot enough to ask “<\/span>Do I like<\/span> this idea?”<\/span>, or\n“<\/span>Would it be good if everyone did this?”<\/span> or “<\/span>Will more people benefit than be harmed?”<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n

    No, you must also ask “<\/span>Is this\nsufficiently compelling to force<\/i> it upon people who don't share my opinion?<\/span>”<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    So that brings me to the subject of net neutrality<\/a>, and the many\ndiscussions of it I've seen.<\/p>\n\n

    First let me say that this blog post is not an argument for or against net neutrality. However, this blog post is<\/i>\nan argument against discussions that don't consider whether it's compelling enough to require under threat of force.<\/p>\n\n

    Take, for example, the occasionally-funny comic “<\/span>The\nOatmeal<\/a>”<\/span>, and his article on net\nneutrality<\/a>, where he talks about all the bad things internet service providers could and would do if left unregulated. He gets a<\/span> bit melodramatic, but his points are completely valid.<\/p>\n\n

    It's as if he's talking about what would happen if restaurants could set their own prices for food. He'd\nmake the<\/span> valid point that since some dishes would cost more than others, you'd be faced with the unpleasant task of\nconsidering price when making your selection, instead of just being able to choose based upon your current mood. Or, he'd\ncorrectly point out, every dish in a particular<\/span> restaurant might be priced too high for you to afford,\nso you'd be effectively barred<\/i> from eating there! This would be really unpleasant! The answer, he would then point out\nobviously, is to require<\/i> restaurants to set all meals to a single<\/span> government-mandated price.\nThere, problem solved!<\/p>\n\n

    Why isn't there a law requiring this? The vast majority<\/span> of humans would benefit from this... only the\nrestaurants (which are not even people!) would have their rights taken away. That seems to be a small<\/span>\nprice to pay for such widespread benefit, no? No. That's not how a just<\/span> society works. The idea that<\/span> all food is priced equally might be nice on the surface, but not enough to compel people to do\nit if they don't want.<\/p>\n\n

    The restaurant business is very different from the ISP business, so the analogy goes only so far; I'm not<\/b> attempting to\nequate the restaurant business with that of ISPs, but merely using it as an exaggerated example to illustrate the salient point\nthat any discussion of a law<\/span>\/regulation\/tax should include the recognition that it's the application of\nforce by the government to restrict others. The end result<\/span> might be exactly what society needs, but it\nshouldn't be done without recognizing that it's being done.<\/p>\n\n

    (The previous paragraph was clarified a bit in response to the first few comments)<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    So, when discussing the use of force to require internet service providers to run their business in a\nparticular<\/span> way, please also discuss whether it's good and right for society to use force in that way.<\/p>\n\n

    Maybe that discussion will end up with “<\/span>yes”<\/span> for any number of reasons, or “<\/span>no”<\/span>, but at this point I've never seen the\ndiscussion actually happen.<\/p>\n\n

    Even Seth Godin, who has long been a bastion<\/span> of common-sense insight in a\nsea<\/span> of misdirection, in his comments on net\nneutrality<\/a> looks only at how some individuals might be hurt if net neutrality is lost, completely failing to consider how\nsociety might be hurt if it uses its force without due consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A thought process:<\/p> I like cookies. I love free cookies. Gee, it would sure be nice if cookies were always free, don't you think? The government should compel, by force of law, bakeries to give cookies away for free!!

    At what point do you think the thought process crossed the line? If you like cookies, I bet you agree with #2 and #3, so why not agree with #4? Why not compel bakeries to give cookies away?<\/p>

    By their very definition, laws and regulations compel people to act a certain way, whether they like it or not. It removes their [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}