[nycbug-talk] Verizon Woes got you down?

[George R.]

On Dec 20, 2005, at 2:05 PM, Isaac Levy wrote:

> NOooooo,

oh here we go. . .

>
> On Dec 20, 2005, at 1:52 PM, George R. wrote:
>
>> On Dec 20, 2005, at 1:46 PM, Isaac Levy wrote:
>>
>>> On Dec 20, 2005, at 12:47 PM, michael wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:32:54 -0500
>>>> Isaac Levy <ike at lesmuug.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> 3 cheers for State-controlled monopolies!  Hip Hip Horay!
>>>>
>>>> Was that a cheer and a call for privatization?
>>>>
>>>> sshhh.. there are non-americans on this list.
>>>>
>>>> -- Michael
>>>
>>> Actually, your right- look at what a great scene the wireless  
>>> voice business is, now that ma' bell is no longer the monopoly  
>>> (Cingular, AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, Sprint/Nextel, etc...)
>>
>> Oh, that's interesting. . . wireless is a 'good scene' in the US?
>
> I was being sarcastic- I thought that was understood.

Okay. . . and i meant cell phones. . . not wireless, of course. . .

>
> (I loathe my phone service, the policies, tactics, contracts,  
> connectivity, phone handsets, everything doesn't meet my  
> expectations based on the prices...)
>

phew. . . i was a bit worried there tiger. ;-)

>>
>> I actually think deregulation was the problem with telecom in the  
>> US. . . Bell Labs, .Ike?  Compare it before and after  
>> deregulation. . .
>
> Word from the oldschool is that everyone hated Ma' Bell back in the  
> day too...
>
>>
>> And AFAIK and have seen, the European scene is much better with  
>> GSM as the standard in terms of coverage, although not in terms of  
>> pricing (although incoming is free).  And AFAIK, the European GSM  
>> adoption was a basically pseudo-public/gov't endeavor . . .
>>
>> g
>
> Yep- but the Europeans actually have laws that protect and cover  
> more abstract personal civil liberties, (things that reduce the  
> meme-attacks of advertising, for example... in America we don't  
> even begin to deal with such things [perhaps based on our  
> religious, absolutist hanging-on to 19th century scientific  
> idealism])...

speaking of abstract!  Laws don't drop out of the sky, and the  
intense deregulation of the late 70's and early 80's in the US  
(airlines, trucking, telecom) concretely killed the innovation of  
Bell Labs.  Nothing about abstract laws.  I mean, most people in the  
US make the converse case by pointing to the Bill of Rights in the  
US. . . how funny, but equally nonsensical.

>
> What I'm saying is that we don't respect abstract mental/conceptual/ 
> meme space much in America, so it doesn't surprise me that people  
> elsewhere do this stuff better...

And did those of us who are euro-americans lose that gene in the  
atlantic somewhere?!? :-'

I strongly disagree. . . but it's hard to argue with you since you're  
speaking in grand abstractions, and not about concrete things.  Ask  
your jail buddy in Warsawa about abstract space in the Polish  
economy.  Do you think European firms somehow put Enlightenment  
principles above their profit margins?  LOL

>
> /me ponders the devaluation of my own .02?

Well, that will still buy us each a pack of cigarettes in NC.

g