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Comment by exabrial | Hacker News Reader

This has nothing to do with discrimination, per the FCC.

Crappy time to be alive in the USA, where a private business can be forced by the federal government to do something against their will.

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>>> Crappy time to be alive in the USA, where a private business can be forced by the federal government to do something against their will.

That's an ironic statement, considering 13 hours ago you were begging the federal government to force RealPage and Apartment owners to stop colluding on rental pricing...

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38298350

Here you go buddy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

I don't follow. The federal government has effectively always forced businesses to do things, such as paying taxes. Furthermore, the businesses in question agreed to build this infrastructure in exchange for funding and government protection, an obligation that they have failed to uphold their end of the deal on.

If you're running a utility, it is your responsibility to serve all customers. The water company can't refuse to build pipes in a poor neighborhood. Private ownership of that utility doesn't remove that responsibility.

If they don't like it, I'm sure we would be happy to nationalize them.

The FCC literally tried to find and couldn't find any evidence of this actually happening but pushed this through anyway.

> where a private business can be forced by the federal government to do something against their will.

Like fulfill their side of the bargain in exchange for already-received subsidies and tax breaks...?

And its not even just subsidies and tax breaks. They also often own the utility poles or conduits and can often restrict/delay attachments preventing any competition from actually rolling out in the area. And that's assuming they don't have a monopoly franchise agreement for the area!

If they don't want to serve everyone in the community, they need to give up rights to have any say over utility corridors and any franchise agreements.

These are utilities we are talking about, not your local bodega.

they took $42billion to do the thing and then just did not do the thing. They are thieves who steal from you and me and should indeed be forced to do what they agreed to.

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