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Comment by CuriouslyC | Hacker News Reader

Private construction of road networks didn't work very well to connect the country compared with government backed road construction.

Additionally, when massive economies of scale drive the market towards a single provider, your options are to either trust a corporation to behave ethically (given history, a terrible choice) or to run a state monopoly.

There are definitely times when a planned system backed by the state can do a better job of serving the public good than a free market. The right answer is to be flexible and examine each situation independently rather than be dogmatic about government vs markets.

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The state did a better job because when you have a monopoly on the use of force, the ability to pass and expand imminent domain laws, and an insane amount of funding via coercion, it's amazing what you can get "accomplished".

That's true whether it's for ill or for good. Last time I checked Google isn't bombing kids in other countries, our government is.

Yes, that's exactly the reason that the government is the only entity that can build an interstate highway system that stretches across a continent.

It could only be built with the use of imminent domain.

>Last time I checked Google isn't bombing kids in other countries, our government is.

And at the same time the reason Google (or some other multi-billion dollar company) isn't doing the equivalent of bombing kids in other countries is because the existence of a government with a monopoly on the user of force.

Did I even mention “free market”? Did I say government should not get involved at all? Where is this negativity coming from?

So you want the government to use force to compel private property owners to let private companies build private infrastructure.

That's how we got into the situation we're in now with respect to net neutrality. Sure there are fixes that involve regulating the private infrastructure, but what's so great about that vs. just making the infrastructure public in the first place?

You can always contract out the building and management of the infrastructure while still maintaining public ownership and control.

Did you post on wrong thread?

Are you asking a serious question?

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