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To: E. Davies who wrote (17165)	11/19/1999 9:44:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 29970

It was the will of the people that Att evolved into a monopoly. The will was motivated by inherited tendencies from a turn of the century absorption in populism. The people demanded protection from what they considered a price gouging big company. The laws they created caused the competition to fold and Att to persist under government's indirect control. The control took the form of fixed prices for service. This is what people wanted. They were willing to pay a premium for protection. The outcome was an inefficient Att monopoly and stagnation that came from a lack of need for innovation. The people feared monopoly so they had government whip one up for protection. There's nothing like paying the protection money. Roll forward 40 years and Att is sinking from a lack of profitability and a degenerating plant reminiscent of the glorious Soviet Union, a country which achieved greatness from the profound insight of professorial guidance. The people created this Att monster and used government to do it, so the government had to clean it up or force the people to pay for it. The execs at Att resisted such efforts. They were true believers in their system which they learned at Harvard and especially MIT. It's the system of privilege of the elite and it was the system which made Soviet Union what it was. These two professors claim "(unfettered access) threatens to reproduce the calcified network design that characterized our communications network prior to the Internet". They're referring to that other creation of the people seeking to pay the protection money and government's willingness to do good according to that will, MSO CATV. It is ironic that Att bought TCI. It was the professors and their socialist philosophy of control which reinforced the continuation of the MSO monopolies. They taught that "you can't have free markets because there is too much concentration of power in business". They also claimed that it was better to have the price fixing controls since free markets don't work. You don't hear them say these things now because it is no longer operational, no longer chic, no longer official mindthink. Professorial truth is a function of fad. Surprisingly, that's true in the sciences too. The secret is that professors work for the state so is it any wonder where their prurient interests lie?