<story><title>Comcast-Funded Civil Rights Groups Claim Low-Income People Want Ads Over Privacy</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2017/03/29/isp-civil-rights/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>prklmn</author><text>Them wanting people to believe that this will lower the cost of internet service is laughable. Have TV ads lowered the cost of cable?&lt;p&gt;We need to think of the internet as a public utility. How absurd would it be if every time you used water in your home, you heard an advertisement playing from a speaker in the faucet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hackuser</author><text>&amp;gt; Them wanting people to believe that this will lower the cost of internet service is laughable. Have TV ads lowered the cost of cable?&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a very important point; this false argument is often used. In truth, in the marketplace, goods are not priced at &amp;#x27;cost-plus&amp;#x27;; i.e., they aren&amp;#x27;t priced by taking the cost to the vendor and adding a profit margin.&lt;p&gt;Goods are priced at the point that will maximize profit for the vendor; economists would say at the point that maximizes marginal profit. Colloquially, they charge as much as they can.&lt;p&gt;The fact that the vendor has another stream of income from Product B doesn&amp;#x27;t cause them to reduce their prices for Product A. Microsoft doesn&amp;#x27;t cut the price of Windows because they are making so much from Office.</text></comment>
<story><title>Comcast-Funded Civil Rights Groups Claim Low-Income People Want Ads Over Privacy</title><url>https://theintercept.com/2017/03/29/isp-civil-rights/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>prklmn</author><text>Them wanting people to believe that this will lower the cost of internet service is laughable. Have TV ads lowered the cost of cable?&lt;p&gt;We need to think of the internet as a public utility. How absurd would it be if every time you used water in your home, you heard an advertisement playing from a speaker in the faucet.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mundo</author><text>Every time I hear someone argue for the efficiencies of privatization, I think of my water utility emulating mobile carriers and billing me for &amp;quot;Anytime gallons&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Nighttime gallons&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Weekend gallons&amp;quot;.</text></comment>