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Comment by ProllyInfamous | Hacker News Reader

I had Google Fiber installed in my crapbox Barton Hills duplex (Austin, Texas)... I want to say 2015? It was cool, a then-neat-gimmick that I had to wait years for installation.

I now have Chattanooga's public utility fiber, provided by the local electricity provider (EPBfiber, part of the electric fiber board) to EVERY SINGLE ADDRESS SERVICED BY THE POWER COMPANY.

The latter scenario is SO MUCH BETTER that the state of Tennessee effectively has banned [still cat-and-mouse] other cities from implementing Chattanooga's beloved solution to broadband infrastructure AS A RIGHT. I do not even know why Comcast/AT&T/etc. even send out advertisements when nobody in their right mind would choose anything other than the city-provided publicly-subsidized internet.

<3 from Not Your Electrician

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the state of Tennessee effectively has banned [still cat-and-mouse] other cities from implementing Chattanooga's beloved solution

It's bleakly hilarious that politicians of a certain stripe fall over themselves to pass laws against policies that deliver value to the public.

Free market proponents don’t want the government competing with industry. It’s not that surprising

If the government can provide a better and cheaper service, what exactly is the problem? The free market will decide if the government's competition makes sense.

The problem is ideological.

No it’s not, see my other reply.

>what exactly is the problem?

"Privatize profits

"Socialize losses"

—Reagan, probably.

This is fine as long as:

- the government doesn’t use any tax revenue to do this nor impose any debt on the government

- the government doesn’t get any special privileges for access to lay fiber

Then it’s no different than a regular competitor. This is often not the case though and it makes it very difficult for anyone to compete.

> the government doesn’t use any tax revenue to do this nor impose any debt on the government

Where is the initial capital investment supposed to come from? And what is the purpose of collecting taxes other than to provide services to the citizens? What's different between garbage collection, water, power and internet?

Can I make a health insurance company that only insures healthy people?

Can you make a health company that insures not only healthy people is a real question.

Isn’t that what we essentially have? Private insurance only covers healthy people, adults healthy enough to work. The rest is punted to Medicare (old and sick) or Medicaid (poor, jiblessand young that are too sick)

Although I am still "healthy enough to work," having no dependents allows me to an optimal loner healthcare strategy: just don't apply/carry health insurance (tyl: 50% of US healthcare is paid for by government funded sources — just single-payer it [for all!] already!).

Instead I am a cash-paying blue-collar degenerate. It works for me because I am too damn stubborn to give even cents to the disgrace we Americants call "public healthcare" — and with no children/wife to support, I can be as wreckless as society damnwell chooses for me to behave.

"Acting rationally in an irrational environment IS IRRATIONAL."

Excluding pre-existing conditions sort of does that.

Not relevant

I was on the board of a similar municipal effort in the mid-west. Comcast sent in 3rd party consultants to scare residents and mis-represent every aspect of the effort. Thankfully the public vote for the infrastructure passed anyway.

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