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To: secretagent
We can get more objectivity out of the system by figuring out how to get more competition from its components - the different owners of radio and tv stations. Hence my mentioning anti-trust action.

Lack of competition in the market is the result of government meddling. It always is. The FCC needs to be shut down and government needs to get to get out of the way.

Monopolies only exist when they have the force of government behind them. Anti-trust is a sham.

Perhaps it would help if we said no individual, corporate or human, could own more than one tv or radio station.

Two rules to keep in mind when you begin to think, "there oughta be a law."

  1. The ones who write the rules are those with the most political influence and power, and that isn't you and it isn't me. They're usually well-funded special interest groups with completely different agendas than yours.
  2. No law will ever be written and enforced exactly the way you imagined it. In fact, it may very well end up doing the exact opposite of what you intended. Hence, regulations which are supposedly designed to make health care more affordable always put health care providers out of business, stifle innovation, cause shortages, and make health care even more expensive.

I recommend these articles on the sham that is anti-trust:

Anti-trust, Anti-truth
Trustbusting
How History Repeats Itself: The IBM Antitrust Case of 1972

24 posted on 08/04/2002 10:30:26 AM PDT by Alan Chapman
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To: Alan Chapman
I agree in general with calling anti-trust legislation a sham, and I don't like it on principle for markets and resources with no government created or "entangled" scarcities.

The current spectra territories depend on intimate and constant government involvement, and so I find the idea of simply abolishing the FCC intriguing. It seems at first to lead to anarchy of the airwaves, with no reliable reception of any station since all would have the freedom to broadcast willy nilly. Please address this point.

30 posted on 08/04/2002 7:16:50 PM PDT by secretagent
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