Somewhere within the (depending upon your copy) 1,088 pages of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged - is (yet another) very telling scene.
In the tome, the Men of Mind - the people who make society work - are withdrawing from society. So society starts collapsing.
As it does, the incompetent government bureaucrats - which is a redundancy if there ever was one - shriek at the remaining Men of Mind something along the lines of:
“Make things work! Make them work!”
Because the incompetent government bureaucrats quite obviously can not.
We are reaching that stage in US society. Although many of the Men Of Mind aren’t voluntarily withdrawing - incompetent government bureaucrats are driving them out.
As anyone with an IQ above nine on a warm day can tell you:
Big Government is great for Big Business - and awful for small business.
Because Big Business can afford Big Government. Small business can not.
Every time Big Government gets bigger - more small businesses go under.
At which point Big Business get even bigger. They pick clean the small business carcasses - and consume their marketshare. Lather, rinse, repeat….
Dodd-Frank Federal Law Is Making Big Banks Bigger, Crippling Small Banks
Dodd-Frank Is Killing Community Banks
A funny thing happens in a country with as much land mass as the US has.
There are large swaths of the country Big Business won’t touch - because they deem it not profitable enough to do so.
So it is with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Small broadband providers serve the very many, very expansive rural areas - where Big Business often will not tread.
Small Biz will take the smaller profits - that Big Biz find uninteresting.
But those margins - are very narrow. And ever larger government - narrows them further still.
Want Cheaper, Better Internet? Limit the Government Shakedowns of Internet Providers
Which is why when government massively expands itself - via the idiotic Internet Policy known as Network Neutrality? Things like this happen….
500 Small Internet Providers Object to The FCC’s Plan to Bring Back Net Neutrality
Of course, the large Internet providers object as well.
Telecom Sector Opposes US Plan to Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules
Because Net Neutrality is a universally stupid idea.
But for the Little Guys - it is a more immediate existential threat:
“The larger players in this space have the bandwidth to research into regulatory compliance and make the changes, but smaller, leaner companies do not have this luxury.
“By the very nature of heavier scrutiny and complicated rules, the FCC is creating an atmosphere hostile to small companies challenging the market dominance of major ISPs in an area.
“This necessarily leaves certain regions with as few as one choice for internet service providers.”
And then what happens when that one Internet business - goes out of business?
Thousands Of Hawaiians Could Lose Phone And Internet Service Amid Bankruptcy Dispute:
“Sandwich Isles Communications is an Oahu-based telephone company founded in 1995 with a mission to provide communication services to Native Hawaiians living on homesteads.”
Now, all appearances are Sandwich Islands Communications has been thoroughly fraudulent. Which serves to demonstrate how stupid government money for Internet service is…:
“After the money started flowing, things got complicated.
"Between 1997 and 2001, the U.S. Department of Agriculture loaned the company more than $166 million to build telecommunications infrastructure. From 2002 to 2015, it received over $27 million from the FCC to cover various telecom-related costs.
"In 2015, founder Albert Hee was convicted of criminal tax fraud. Federal prosecutors found that Hee steered millions of dollars from the business into his personal accounts….
“Then in 2020, the FCC fined Hee nearly $50 million for defrauding the Universal Services Fund which supports carriers providing telecom services in high-cost parts of the country.”
But the idiocy of government money for broadband - is not the primary point I am making today.
This is:
In response to the bankruptcy filing? The real life incompetent government bureaucrats - behaved exactly like Ayn Rand’s incompetent government bureaucrats:
“Make things work! Make them work!”
Hawaii Governor, PUC Block ISP Sandwich Isles from Shutting Down:
“Gov. Josh Green (D) issued an Emergency Proclamation and the PUC released a notice of violation that ordered Sandwich Isles Communications to continue providing service to customers without disruption or reduction in quality.”
Ummm….there’s no money. The company has filed for bankruptcy. How the heck is it going “to continue providing service to customers without disruption or reduction in quality?”
Dear Incompetent Government Bureaucrats,
Here in Reality, you can’t just issue a fiat - and things will suddenly work exactly the way you’d like them to work.
Reality doesn’t work that way.
Sincerely,
Non-Idiot Humans
Meanwhile, there are a LOT of Little Guy ISPs all around the country - doing the Internet providing Big Business will not.
Working on very narrow margins - made ever narrower by ever bigger government.
And now these poor Little Guys - are about to get yet another massive dose of federal government. Known as Net Neutrality.
So MANY more Little Guy ISP bankruptcies - are in our very near future.
Because the incompetent government bureaucrats - are “helping.”
And as the Little Guys go under - the incompetent government bureaucrats will time and again idiotically shriek:
“Make things work! Make them work!”
As the nation’s Internet service implodes.