[TriLUG] TWC "Existing Customer Promotion"

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 14 Mar 2014 06:34:47 -0700 (PDT)
John Vaughters <jvaughters04 at yahoo.com> wrote:


> I am sure I left out some, but I hope that we can all agree:
> 
> - We have a very healty competition in the communications market

I disagree. One twisted pair vendor, one coax vendor, and two dish
vendors is not my idea of very healthy competition. If I could choose
from thirty vendors, *that* would be my idea of healthy competition.

> - Prices have dropped significantly over the years for Phone, Data,
> and TV services (Consider content imporvements on this calculation)

I disagree. Compared to prices in technology areas not ruled by
oligopolies, broadband price/performance hasn't dropped all that much.
In 5 years, I'm paying 30% more for double the bandwidth. In the same
time, for a desktop computer, I'm paying 20% less for double the
performance. 

One more thing. The invisible hand of Adam Smith is valid only with
vigorous competition (a lot more than three or four choices) of both
buyers and sellers. When the marketplace becomes a monopoly, monopsany,
oligopoly or oligopsany, the benefits of capitalism begin to crumble.

SteveT

Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance