jerome scuggs' weekly "shit hits the fan" politics thread

[Jerome Scuggs]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2447...ry-meters.html

In a recent debate over net neutrality I had with a friend, I used the metaphor of water. Here in the US, we pay for water in incremented units - if you use alot, you have to pay alot. I referenced this concept because in the context of net neutrality, the consumer expects unlimited internet for one price - something internet companies are having trouble dealing with because they their network bandwidth can only take so much.

Well, as it turns out, I was right - at least about the water. Britain can no longer afford to give people access to unlimited water, and they are going to introduce metering, which will put serious stress on people who previously took it for granted.

Water down, healthcare to go!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...ccspain115.xml

The eurozone is tipping into a deeper downturn than America itself despite the tremors in the US mortgage industry, and may already be in full recession for the first time since the launch of the single currency.

Look's like Europe's gonna have to bite the bullet. Wonder how alot of "necessary" services are going to be paid for?

[Kolar]

There is only so much fresh water an area can be supplied with. There's no unlimited; only reasonable use. The same goes for bandwidth, if I tried downing 200+ gigabytes a month I would be cut off. Britain is also very overpopulated when you take land mass into consideration. Network neutrality is more complex then the simple consumption of network traffic.

Edit: I'm not exactly arguing against you. But this idea that public utilities and services will offer unlimited and free services is wrong, there's always a limit in any system regardless of ownership.

[Galleleo]

Speaking for the Netherlands (I don't really know the status of other countries) I don't think we are in a recession, as far as I know and heard we are doing pretty damn well (besides oil prices).

[castromarx]

net neutrality != paying for bandwidth.

[D1st0rt]

was it our little chat jerome?

[TagMor]

Forgive me for my ignorance but I was under the impression Net neutrality was an issue of ISP's deciding which traffic gets served first/fastest??.. Like if you d/l from istore you will get a nice fast speed but try using a non-commercial site, like this one, and they would throw you at teh bottom of the heap... Where as atm it works on a (much fairer) first come, first serve basis.

Quote:
The eurozone is tipping into a deeper downturn than America itself despite the tremors in the US mortgage industry, and may already be in full recession for the first time since the launch of the single currency.
Look's like Europe's gonna have to bite the bullet. Wonder how alot of "necessary" services are going to be paid for?

It seems the recent period of economic bliss is just about over for the western world.. Regardless of the social ideologies, the recessive signs are everywhere..
Whats sad is the people who bought into it. Fooled into thinking they were going to live out their days in a state of decadence... Maybe when their designer clothes have faded and they have drank the last bottle of French champagne, they will realise it was merily a distraction, as the foundation of liberty was pulled from beneath them.

[kthx]

This is my favorite part. Anyone who believes in that Al Gore global warming bullshit should have a pretty simple answer here. If global warming is melting the polar ice caps (which it isn't) and the sea level is rising, that means it is time to build desalination plants. People have more water and it uses sea water, its the simple one two punch to end the global warming hoax. Al Gore, what a joke.

[TagMor]

we're all doomed

[Kolar]

Forgive me for my ignorance but I was under the impression Net neutrality was an issue of ISP's deciding which traffic gets served first/fastest??.. Like if you d/l from istore you will get a nice fast speed but try using a non-commercial site, like this one, and they would throw you at teh bottom of the heap... Where as atm it works on a (much fairer) first come, first serve basis.

The analogy used is a 'toll road', where the ISPs hold complete access to the 'on ramp'. The Telcos are becoming more interested in it because it would allow them to offer high speed streaming content if they can degrade the traffic and all together prevent people from using applications which require high amounts of bandwidth. The Internet would become a one way medium. It also opens the door to those Telcos using their network as a weapon against competitors. If Yahoo products (email, word processor, video ect...) load up 10 times faster then Google products (Yahoo has partnerships with some ISPs), without actually providing a better service people aren't gonna stick behind Google. They'll settle.

[Bioture]

This is my favorite part. Anyone who believes in that Al Gore global warming bullshit should have a pretty simple answer here. If global warming is melting the polar ice caps (which it isn't) and the sea level is rising, that means it is time to build desalination plants. People have more water and it uses sea water, its the simple one two punch to end the global warming hoax. Al Gore, what a joke.

are you for serial?

[genocidal]

Unfortunately, he is.

Fortunately, he's a mental midget whose post most people probably didn't even read until you quoted it, Bio (I know I didn't).

[kthx]

Lol global warming is bullshit, its just a way to increase the amount of government America has, the same thing democrats have been trying to do for years and years. It has the unfortunate power to create thousands of useless "green" jobs when there is no proof that the world has gotten any hotter. In fact, the world used to be more warm BEFORE the industrial revolution. Not to mention pictures show that the polar ice caps are the same size if not larger than they were when pictures were first taken. People need to wake up and realize that they are buying in to a purposefully created "crisis". Perhaps because all you do is watch the nationally syndicated news and they don't tell you the entire truth of the matter. Try checking out the physical societies proof that global warming is a fraud.

[Fluffz]

goddamn bio screwed it up.

[Troll King]

Somebody pull out that picture of the girl with the gyrating hips quick.

[MetalHeadz]

Water down, healthcare to go!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...ccspain115.xml

Although this was a joke Jerome it would be difficult for me to allow this to lie unchallenged. Not only does it show a profound misunderstanding of political economics, but it smacks of the cocky neo-liberalist, 'we know best' attitudes, typical of conservative America.

Let me first say that you're widely exaggerating the problem of water scarcity. The problem is largely a cause of increases in population (demand) as opposed to a environmental factors (supply). Water specialists say these increases in demand can easily be met by advances in filtration technologies. Indeed, 70% of the worlds surface is covered in water, 95% salt water.

And then to say that this temporary shortage of water could then accentuate the damage caused by the collapse of the sub-prime mortage sector in America and, consequently, Europe, is at best speculatory and at worst completely unfounded.

Your rash conclusion that this combined effect may also weaken the economies of Britain and the rest of Europe to the point of privatisation is also completely absurd. Call it bitter patriotism, but the NHS will be here as long as we are called British. Unlike you we do not bow to infallible, neo-con demi gods named Mr. Bush who provide a system which only caters for the healthy and rich.

That's my piece.