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Jon Stewart is educated by Ezra Klein on Government Regulation

jmotivator

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The whole interview is really good, and I like that Ezra Klein is the one exposing this stuff in his new book, but Jon Stewart's response as Klein walks him through the $42 billion rural broadband process is priceless.

They could have given rural customers money for Starlink and been done with the rollout in 2022, instead by 2024 53 states and territories had dropped out and nothing at all was accomplished except some bureaucrats got paid.

 
 
Airyaman said:
Starlink?

Nope.
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Starlink?

Yep.

Absolutely no terrestrial construction necessary and no environmental impact to speak of and nearly 100% of rural homes already would be covered with a simple appliance install. It was a no-brainer decision, so of course Democrats ****ed it up.
 
Airyaman said:
Sorry, but Elmo is already too far embedded and reliant on the US government. Time to get him farther away.
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LOL!!! You do realize that you are making the argument for WHY the government shouldn't be trusted such things? The Democrats would rather NEVER get rural customers dependable internet if it means giving business to Elon Musk.
 
Ezra Klein's made some really good points over the years about how Democrats have gotten in their own way in terms of how the government works. There's a lot to parse out, but the core of it is over regulation that's made large infrastructure projects grind to a halt for the very reasons he's cited in that clip. The same goes for housing and other projects as well, and basically they're so mired in process that everything becomes absurdly expensive and takes forever if it even gets built. This needs to change, and on this point I agree with Republicans who want to remove the over regulation. At some point the party has to take a stand and choose between completing projects and proving the government can do big things effectively, or they continue making the case that government should do less. This requires saying no to some members of the coalition and making them upset, but there's more to lose by maintaining the status quo.
 
Greenbeard said:
Federalism does make stuff hard.
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The only reason all of that bullshit was even being done was because the best solution was ruled out in advance for political spite.

There would be no impact planning and mapping necessary if they simply started up a credit for rural customers to buy satellite internet.
 
Contrary to popular belief, the Treasury is not just a slush fund for Elon Musk's personal benefit.
 
jmotivator said:
LOL!!! You do realize that you are making the argument for WHY the government shouldn't be trusted such things? The Democrats would rather NEVER get rural customers dependable internet if it means giving business to Elon Musk.
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Lol!! You do realize that any work should be put out for bidding and not just handed to Elon Musk?
 

There really is no way to get around the mountains of paperwork and legal challenges when you are talking about projects that require terrestrial building projects. The best you can do is remove some of the superfluous regulations at the federal and state level, but it will still take forever.

This case in particular is egregious simply because satellite internet requires pretty much none of that. It's like a more sensible "cash for cars" program that can be rolled out almost immediately simply by making the money directly available to potential consumers. If the satellite business takes off simply for being immediately available, then the terrestrial broadband can build out their infrastructure on their own dime if they thin they can undercut satellite broadband on cost.

But what it ended up doing was spawn a bunch of bureaucrats like flies on a banana who didn't see this as a way to get broadband to rural residents, but rather as a way to get paid for a decade sitting behind a desk.
 
Greenbeard said:
Contrary to popular belief, the Treasury is not just a slush fund for Elon Musk's personal benefit.
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Contrary to popular belief, Elon Musk collects money from the Government for providing them with the best solutions for issues that the Government cares about.

He provided the best EV on the market for years, with Tesla pretty much creating the EV market.

He provided a cheaper, more reliable rocket and crew delivery system than the competitors with SpaceX.

Pout and stomp your feet all you want, but Elon gets paid by the US treasury because he won competitive bids.

Starlink also happens to be the best option for rural broadband no matter how much you want it not to be true.
 
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Ezra is out their making enemies of the Democrat Kleptocracy.

 
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I would urge everyone to listen to what Ezra Kline has to say. He and Derek Thompson wrote the book, "Abundance", which is a critique of the excesses in regulation that have developed over time- particularly in "Blue" states. No, I have not read the book but I listen to all of Kline's podcast and appreciate his balanced approach to many topics. He has also discussed the California bullet train that never happened.

Bill Maher routinely mocked California's sluggish ability to permit solar panels for his home. It took a couple of years as I recall. There are many people who would never vote for Republicans in their present mad, destructive incarnation, but long for a more responsive nimble government which can actually get things done. Rs get things UNdone. Ds have created a morass of bureaucratic inefficiencies -even for things we say we want.

Biden's failure was the inability for voters to actually see any accomplishments from the legislation passed.
 
I have been following Klein lately and this is the idea he is promoting:


If you go through the broadband example, the idea is that the money was not effective enough and should have had spending be made more efficient.

Basically, he wants to reinvent the historical success of the WPA during the great depression.
 

The California bullet train is a story, if you did into it, that makes even this rural broadband boondoggle seem small in comparison.

They just told the CA budget committee that they need another $7 billion in 12 months or the whole project will fail. It sure is getting expensive not to build things in California.
 

This isn't the type of regulation that right wingers are obsessed with. Remember how Trump kept crying that he wants to protect single family zoning? When zoning regulations are one of the reasons for skyrocketing housing prices and the overall national housing shortage.

They're obsessed with repealing regulations that protect regular people from corporations killing us for a buck.
 

And he makes a great point. I think it's getting to the point that we can start calling a lot of state and federal bureaucracy a kleptocracy insofar as it's getting to the point that keeping their jobs is more important to them than a speedy resolution. For every project they build little fiefdoms of bureaucrats whose sole job is managing these projects, and the longer the job takes the better, and the slower the job is, the easier the job.

When they threw telework into the mix we had whole departments of the federal government who did almost nothing for years. The best they could muster sometimes is to log into a Teams chat a few times a week.

we can get into the specifics of what the better options are for rural broadband, but the reality is, what the government REALLY wants isn't solutions, it's long expensive projects.
 
You are certainly giving your own take and adding a bunch of your own bias on his straightforward idea.
 
jmotivator said:
Ezra is out their making enemies with the Democrat Kleptocracy.

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Your use of the word "kleptocracy" is unfortunate!
The inefficiencies develop because we , the people, cannot agree on anything.

Off shore wind? Of course there will be a contingency of people who cannot bear the sight of them and tie it up in litigation.
Solar panels? Ah, that could ruin the historic appearance of that charming New England town.- same result
Housing? Who wants a duplex or triplex to be built in that lovely neighborhood of spacious single family homes?
Cluster housing? Egads. there must be adequate parking for every household to have 2 cars!
Want to build a house with ICFs- well the city has no idea what that is or how to make sure it fits all the codes
 
Yup, that’s the real issue. People are too self centered and individualistic.
 
Sure, but there's definitely room to review regulations that extend beyond the essential ones centered around safety.
 
Do you live in the country??? I did for decades. Fact is there are many small internet servers out there ready to expand their services mostly by piggy backing off cell towers. There are a score of satellite servers ready to expand. I had both small business internet and satellite TV service. Problem with satellite service is it doesn't operate when you really need it- severe weather conditions.
I'd much rather see several companies competing for rural contracts than one Manic clown controlling it all...
 
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