From: Paul McDermott (bandwidthboy@optusnet.com.au)
Date: Wed Jul 31 2002 - 06:40:52 MDT
I don't know what to tell you re competition amongst telcos in your country,
but here in Australia I for one have benefitted from the market being opened
up, and I know others who feel similarly. But no biggie! :-)
Messy world or no, I think Simon, Lomborg et al seem a lot closer to
sensible and accurate than the doomsayers. I wonder how the Progress Action
Coalition is going at the moment, and what it has been up to? Has it a
position on the environment?
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
[mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 3:03 PM
To: extropians@extropy.org
Subject: Re: ECO: Saying Nay to the Doomsayers
Paul McDermott wrote:
<snip...>
> Presently I am taking my local council to task over their recycling
> programme, which they state results in a $25 million boost to local
> industry. I am concerned that this is little more than the cost borne by
the
> taxpayer, as my understanding of the processes involved suggests that it
is
> unlikely to be a particularly profitable enterprise. As the scheme is run
by
> one outfit, gifted by the Council with the city's contract, I also can't
> help but wonder whether this only adds to the poor use of public funds.
> Competition in the telecomunications sector has certainly been a lot more
> beneficial to the consumer since the government monopoly ended, and I
> suspect that this could likely be so for trash, too.
Ah, you lost me there. I am not in the least impressed with the
result of supposed competition in telecommunications in the US.
Not when I pay through the nose for partial wireless mobile
(where I can find any at all) as compared to what is available
in parts of Europe and in Japan. Not when I can barely
dependably get a sDSL a couple of miles from the telco switchbox
without involving no less than three separate companies with
differing agendas, most of which I cannot talk to when I have a
problem. Competition? It has largely disappeared into merger
zaniness and endles bureaucracy in this industry. Benefits of
competition? BAH. Humbug!
>
> I wonder what the rest here, who've read Lomborg's work, think about it.
> Will it have any discernible influence on the wider community: the media,
> the policy-makers, academia, the green movement? Could the extropian pov
> benefit from assisting such dissemination?
>
I don't believe either the doomsayers or Simon and his ilk are
altogether balanced and honest. The world is more messy than that.
- samantha
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