Date: Sun, 8 Mar 92 03:21 EST
From: "Michael E. Marotta" <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 8--BBSes and Telco Rates
GRID News. ISSN 1054-9315. vol 3 nu 5 March 7, 1992.
World GRID Association, P. O. Box 15061, Lansing, MI 48901 USA
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(54 lines) Say YES! to Business Rates
(C) 1992 by Michael E. Marotta
BBS sysops in Oregon are fighting a telco policy to charge busi-
ness rates for any phone with a fax or modem attached. BBS users
know of similar telco policies from Kansas City, New York,
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Texas over the last two years.
Actually, there are at least two ways to view the situation.
(1) THE HOME DATA CENTER In an information society, every home
must be an information center. We have telephones and televisions,
books, newspapers and magazines, computers, copiers, faxen, cable
TV, VCRs, camcorders and answering machines. There is a view,
wrongly held by sysops, that they "provide a service to many
users." EVERY BBS USER IS A SYSOP. Whether you go to them or they
go to you, data travels from home to home.
(2) THE HOME TREASURY In a commercial society every home
must be a business. We all buy and sell. Most of us buy and sell
labor. (Anyone can build a car; most people choose not to.) In
addition, people everywhere and Americans especially buy and sell
housewares, nutritional supplements, baseball cards, comic books,
automobiles and very many other goods. We routinely trade
childcare, bookkeeping and computer programming services. Your
checkbook is your general ledger.
In 1892, "no one" had an adding machine or typewriter in their
home. In 1942, dishwashers were found only in restaurants. Should
your phone rate depend on whether or not you have a dishwasher or
adding machine in your home? If yours should not, then why should
General Motors'?
Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" mandated public schools as a
prerequisite to socialism. It is no accident that schools
supported by tax dollars justify many marxist assertions. Among
these is the myth that "businesses" are "rich" and can afford
higher phone rates, while "workers" are "poor" and deserve a
subsidy for the "right" to a phone.
Another fallacy of marxism is that telephones are a "public
utility" that must be regulated or owned by the state.
Judging by other markets, if you let anyone become a phone company
you will find that those who use more service will pay more in
toto less per call. A user's or provider's race, sex, sources of
income, height or weight will be equally irrelevant. Those who
are good at providing information and carrier services will
prosper and the others will become telco hobbyists.
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