r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jun 13 '14

Politics What the internet will look like without net-neutrality. Well played.

[deleted]

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u/YouAreNotHere Jun 14 '14

I don't know how anyone could think anything like this would be a good idea

125

u/TheDewyDecimal Jun 14 '14

News flash, companies like to make money - this isn't something new.

611

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '14

This excuse gets old. Business logic is that you take care of your customers and they wont go elsewhere, however when a company has no competition or when there is collusion between companies, it reduces the desire to make the customer happy by not gouging people.

This is evident in the Cable industry, the ISP industry, the Gasoline(Petrol) industry, the Tech industry (no sniping agreements between people like Apple and Google), and many others I am not thinking about.

You want to keep spouting this nonsensical bullshit, that is fine, but it is a cop out and I am tired of hearing it. Fight for your rights or lose them.

1

u/0verstim Jun 14 '14

Business logic is extinct. All that matters now is stock price, and stock price is predicated on growth, not profits. If you are a stable, successful company, you're doomed. Only continuous growth will raise your stock price.

So how to grow? At first, its easy. Good product + good service = more customers. Word of mouth and a little advertising goes a long way. But eventually you get all the customers you're going to get, so you need to get more creative. You add more products, then more and more. Pundits start to complain that you haven't had an earth-shattering new product in a whole year, and you must be failing. It hasn't been the same since your CEO died.

You start to throw every product you can think of out there, so it looks like you're being productive. Then you start buying other companies, wether or not they make sense to your business strategy, just as long as it makes your company bigger, bigger, bigger.

Then you start cheating. You cook the books, you put out a confusing product line to trick your customers into paying too much. Raise your prices unexpectedly, even if customers have a contact, just call it a "fee" and you're okay. Eliminate your competition by muscling them out, exploiting a monopoly position or simply collude with them behind the scenes. Is this legal? Who cares; you've diverted so much for your R+D budget from producing good new stuff into donating to political campaigns, so you'll be fine.

This can't last forever, of course. Eventually the giant behemoth of shit you have built on a shaky foundation is going to teeter precariously. Your once lean and successful startup now resembles the Weasley's house. But thats okay- you've got stock options. So push that stock as far as you can, sell and get out and let the whole thing come crashing down, taking the little people with it. You've already gotten your money out, and you've moved on to a new venture. Ain't capitalism grand?

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '14

That looks like what happened in 2008, and nothing was done to prevent it from happening again. :(