There’s many forms of government in the world. Some are capitalist, communist, socialist… All have their downfalls. Nothing (NOTHING) fucks my day up more than when I hear some dumb american go “Well, this is the best country in the world!! We’ve got capitalism!“
SLAP!
NO. No, no, no. Capitalism has it’s downfalls too. Because of them, we’re currently losing our right to a free and open and (un-corporate) internet. As ISPs clench their grasp on this, the internet has nothing to do but get worse (It’ll be like “Internet Vista”). Basically – whenever people who want to make their pockets deeper really put their mind to it, the consumer inevitably has to bend over. The sort of insepid evil that’s being talked about now is none other than (CRINGE) overage fees. Now that net neutrality has been dealt some very real legal death-blows by the US 109th congress, the Senate, the House Judiciary Comitte, and notably the Republicans, ISPs are now looking to fatten their wallots by charging users OVERAGE FEES. This means that there will be a cap on your internet. That’s right, the same internet that you’re paying for now, that one with no cap – you know that one? Well, in the bright and shining future of america, as our currency dwindles down to nothing, and our economy becomes stagnant, we’re going to be paying the SAME amount of money, and then getting charged overage fees if we go over our data limit.
“WHAT THE FUCK”, right? “What data limit?!?” Right. First, how did something as evil as this happen? That’s the real question, isn’t it? If you direct your attention to wikipedia, you’ll see the seven bills that have been proposed (and the five which have been denied) by congress. All of these bills attempted to make rules stricter for ISPs, and also to make sure ISPs can’t limit our speeds on the internet based on limited-service packaging schemes (tiered service), or deny service to some websites, while allowing it to others. This is so that if large web entities like google one day wanted to become financially intertwined with an ISP, the ISP couldn’t start “coaxing” people into only using google by blocking all other search websites. These are the rules laid out to keep the internet free, and to keep us (the consumers) free from getting financially bent-over by ISPs with huge amounts to gain at our expense.
So, why did 5 of these bills get denied? One-word answer here: MONEY. Which brings me to my point: Capitalism’s inherent flaw is that some fish get too big, and start wildly eating all the other fish. They aren’t playing the game anymore, they now are so powerful that they control the game. This is what’s happening in our country right now. They have the money to control the game, whether that be with lobbyists, with free lunches, and young guys with nice suits that wait by senator’s parking spots… Sometimes, with coffee.
So this is me, telling all of you whole hartedly, we’re fucked. It’s not really our fault, but rather the very nature of un-checked capitalism gone way out of control. Get ready for overage fees, americans, because they’re coming your way to the tune of $1.50/GB, and caps as low as 5GB/month.
..As a side note, Comcast is notably the absolute worst ISP available when it comes to pissing on our consumer rights. Not only are they actively filtering bittorrent traffic, although the protocol has plenty of legal uses, they are also among the first ISPs to consider (and implement) the software needed to constitute an “Overage Charger” and “Data Transfer Limiter”. Oh right, and did I mention they actually paid people right off the street to fill up the public hearings about net neutrality issues so that proponents for the legislation wouldn’t have a place to sit? To any comcast employees reading this right now, please commit suicide to better the rest of our human experience. ...Or just get another job, unless you’re an executive of some sort. Then you’re only option is really just to kill yourself. I figure you’re so completly evil that anywhere you end up will make our lives worse somehow.
What can you do to avoid this? Not a whole lot, honestly. Barack Obama has pledged that in his first year of office he will actively work with the FCC comissioner (also against net-neutrality) to try and set up stricter guidelines for ISPs, and subsequently make sure we can avoid shit like this. And by we I really mean mean all of you, because if you’re really smart (like me), you left the USA a long time ago with no plans on ever returning. Have a fucking comcastic day, start saving up your cash so you have enough left to hand over to your ISP when the system fails you (again).
well i agree with net neutrality (who wouldn't? assuming, their not a owner or employee of a isp) but can you stop hating america, i mean we all have our problems. i only commented because you told me too. lol
I'll make you a deal Red Eyes - I'll stop hating america when the system stops completely failing me time and time again. Anyway you're right that we all have our own problems (country-wise), but since I'm American by birth it's pretty much my patriotic duty to bring the ugliest sides of it to as much of the public eye as I can get it to, such that we have an opportunity to fight the oppression and better our own scene. That's what patriotism means, after all. Sure as hell we're not supposed to sit around and watch it all burn and go, "But hey! Who cares? America's great!"