[p2p-research] Governance and Incorporation (was Socialized Infrastructure (Sweden))

[Patrick Anderson]

On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM, marc fawzi <marc.fawzi at gmail.com> wrote:
> /. wrote:
>> "Symmetric, 100 Mbps service in Stockholm costs $11/month [in Stockholm.]
>> Conditions in every city are different, but part of the explanation for the
>> low cost is that the city owns a municipal fiber network reaching every
>> block. They lease network access to anyone who would like to offer service.
>> The ISPs, including incumbent telephone and cable companies, compete on an
>> equal footing."

If the customers are paying $11/month the ISPs are taking a profit,
then it *could* be even cheaper.

Right?

I mean, if the WE (any group with any need) knew how to share, then
the WE could pool their resources to lease the line and then share the
benefits at cost.  Right?

And if the WE were even more aggressive, the WE could even purchase
and *own* the Material Means of Production (the physical network in
this case).

Now the ./ article seems to imply that the WE (in Sweden) own those lines.

But that is not quite true because the supposed WE (the city in this
case) will not lease the line directly to customers, but instead
require for-profit corporations become the "middle-men" - taking
control and value (profit) away from the customers.

There are more administrative costs if THEY (the city government) were
also the ISP layer.

And the semi-valid argument against such a move is that it creates
centralized State Socialism.

The reason that argument has some validity is because almost all
governments are currently under the direction of Capitalist (profit
maximizing and therefore scarcity maximizing) corporations.

....

So we won't be able Govern ourselves effectively until we have control
of Production.

But we can't control Production (can't organize effectively) until we
discover how to share the Material Means of Production.

And sharing Physical Sources for the purpose of maximizing freedom and
(secondarily) utilization means we must know how to self-Govern.

So it seems we may be at an impasse.


We can't change our current governments directly (voting is theater)
because they are controlled by Capitalist Corporations.

And we can't change how we create *new* Corporations because we do not
yet know precisely what is wrong with the current entities.

I mean, sure they're 'evil'.  But what causes them to be such bullies?

Is there any chance it is a structure that rewards scarcity?

If so, then where is the root of that reward?

Is profit related to scarcity?  If so, then what shall be done with it?


Patrick