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A comment on Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to discuss Google: sources. Parent comment

Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by spaceribs on Monday February 03, 2020 @05:29PM (#22230024)
It's actually quite simple: Nationalization.

Edit: instead of downvoting me, you may want to argue why AT&T is any different than Amtrak, The Postal Service, and the TSA.

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by pdonis on Monday February 03, 2020 @07:44PM (#22231105)
> you may want to argue why AT&T is any different than Amtrak, The Postal Service, and the TSA

It isn't. But that's not an argument for nationalizing AT&T; it's an argument for privatizing the others. In fact, two out of three of them already have private competitors in the US; the only one that doesn't is Amtrak.

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by spaceribs on Monday February 03, 2020 @08:44PM (#22231519)
Considering how the postal service has been hobbled by politicians attempting to privatize it[1] and as for the TSA, it used to be private, do I really have to argue why that was a bad idea?

[1] https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/04/how-the-po...

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by pdonis on Monday February 03, 2020 @08:59PM (#22231602)
> the postal service has been hobbled by politicians attempting to privatize it

So what? That has nothing to do with the fact that private companies have proven, through the entire history of the United States (including before the USA was even an independent country), that they can provide postal service. So there is no need for the government to be doing it.

> as for the TSA, it used to be private, do I really have to argue why that was a bad idea?

If you have such an argument, you should make it to the airports that use private screeners today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screening_Partnership_Program

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by spaceribs on Monday February 03, 2020 @11:26PM (#22232398)
> If you have such an argument, you should make it to the airports that use private screeners today.

Sure!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by pdonis on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @07:35PM (#22242819)
You are aware that the program I linked to was put into effect after 9/11, right?
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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by iron0013 on Monday February 03, 2020 @09:19PM (#22231730)
It kinda seems to me that the fact that the government has proven to be able to successfully provide postal service is evidence that we don’t need private alternatives introducing inefficiencies in the form of rent seeking
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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by pdonis on Monday February 03, 2020 @10:23PM (#22232058)
> private alternatives introducing inefficiencies in the form of rent seeking

Um, what? Rent seeking is one way of taking advantage of government-granted privileges. How are FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc. rent seeking?

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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by lucasmullens on Monday February 03, 2020 @06:10PM (#22230412)
I don't think you made it clear in your unedited comment that you were talking about AT&T and not Google. I certainly wouldn't want Google to be nationalized.
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Re:Justice Department meeting state AG offices Tuesday to di... by spaceribs on Monday February 03, 2020 @06:26PM (#22230527)
Is Google an infrastructural aspect of the internet at this point?
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