Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is a law that was originally passed in 2015 to prevent internet and service providers from blocking websites, or charging consumers for better quality service and content. On December 12, 2017, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) voted to repeal the law, and President Donald Trump is supportive of dismantling of this law. I personally agree with Donald Trump and believe that the repealing of this act is important.
Supporters of the law believe that it is necessary, and predict that without this law, network providers will take advantage of the lack of regulations and force consumers to pay for popular services, like high speed internet or accessing websites such as ESPN.com or YouTube.com. One student (who would like to remain anonymous) told me that he thought consumers eventually would be charged money for each Google search they conduct, an outcome I don’t believe will happen.
If one provider raises prices and imposed unreasonable fees, many, if not all, of their customers would switch to a different provider. It is true that without regulations, multiple large providers could collude to raise prices and fees for their mutual financial benefit, and at the expense of consumers. However, I don’t think this would work either, because the less popular, smaller providers, who would not be part of this deal, would charge less, and consumers would use their services instead.
Further, I think this law will actually beneficial for capitalism. Repealing Net Neutrality will create much more competition in the network provider industry. For example, providers can now have more variation in their products compared to other providers. Additionally, certain companies can benefit from not charging money for certain services because other companies are. This is the kind of capitalism that the United States thrives on and the kind that President Trump is trying to promote.
After I finished my research I decided to interview some students to find out what they thought about the issue.
The first student that I interviewed was Daniel Honikman (‘18), who supported the government repealing the law. He said that the law is exactly what the US is all about. He understood how much this law benefits capitalism in that it promotes competition.
Yoni Weinreich (‘20) is very pro net neutrality and believes that we need to keep net neutrality intact.
Aryeh Brusowankin (‘18) said that the benefit of repealing net neutrality is that it will bring “more competition which makes companies more likely to expand.”
I believe that Net Neutrality is bad for our economy and that the repealing it is good for the United States. A repeal will create increased competition for the network provider industry and provide smaller internet providers with a chance to expand and compete competitively with larger, more powerful, providers.
