<story><title>Ohio GOP ends attempt to ban municipal broadband after protest from residents</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/ohio-gop-ends-attempt-to-ban-municipal-broadband-after-protest-from-residents/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lliamander</author><text>&amp;gt; Government is funded by taxes from the people who live in the municipality. Even if they offer it for &amp;quot;free&amp;quot;, everyone in the area gets the benefit of it.&lt;p&gt;But if I wish to purchase internet from a different provider, I still have to subsidize other people&amp;#x27;s internet.  I&amp;#x27;m forced to pay for something whether I use it or not.</text></item><item><author>bluejekyll</author><text>&amp;gt; Municipal broadband is a government handout. It artificially lowers prices.&lt;p&gt;Government is funded by taxes from the people who live in the municipality. Even if they offer it for &amp;quot;free&amp;quot;, everyone in the area gets the benefit of it. This is like roads. Most communities pay for roads out of taxes or bonds levied on the community. None of that is a handout, on top of that, most places will still require you to pay for internet.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Municipal broadband expands the role of government. It&amp;#x27;s an extra program for the municipality to manage.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t necessarily bad, and requires voters be more involved in local politics to ensure that infrastructure in general is being kept up.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Expanding government programs is a tax on residents, even if they don&amp;#x27;t benefit from broadband access.&lt;p&gt;This repeats the first point, but, yes it&amp;#x27;s a tax, but to say that not everyone benefits? This past year showed how important it was for every student to have broadband access to attend remote learning. Seems hard to argue at this point that not everyone would benefit.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Municipal broadband is hostile to business. Companies cannot reasonably compete with a service that the government pumps money into.&lt;p&gt;To ISPs possibly, but not all businesses. Counter point, municipal broadband will benefit many businesses by ensuring that they have high-quality fast internet, that allows them to keep in better touch with their customers. This is pro-business, not anti.</text></item><item><author>legerdemain</author><text>- Municipal broadband is a government handout. It artificially lowers prices.&lt;p&gt;- Municipal broadband expands the role of government. It&amp;#x27;s an extra program for the municipality to manage.&lt;p&gt;- Expanding government programs is a tax on residents, even if they don&amp;#x27;t benefit from broadband access.&lt;p&gt;- Municipal broadband is hostile to business. Companies cannot reasonably compete with a service that the government pumps money into.</text></item><item><author>freedomben</author><text>Can someone explain (preferably steel man) the GOP argument here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>asdff</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s how taxes work. I don&amp;#x27;t have any children, but my taxes fund schools. My house isn&amp;#x27;t burning down, but my taxes fund fire departments. I don&amp;#x27;t commute with a car, but my taxes fund bridges and highways. There is a net economic benefit to pulling your fellow person out of the gutter when it comes to some things. We are all richer because we have an educated populace, cities that don&amp;#x27;t burn down, highways to move people and goods. To put it into HN friendly terms, all of these benefits increase the quality of our labor, which increases our valuation in the eyes of global investors and makes them want to invest in American companies and keep us paid and employed. And who knows, some day you might need help out of the gutter, too, or a fire put out.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ohio GOP ends attempt to ban municipal broadband after protest from residents</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/ohio-gop-ends-attempt-to-ban-municipal-broadband-after-protest-from-residents/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lliamander</author><text>&amp;gt; Government is funded by taxes from the people who live in the municipality. Even if they offer it for &amp;quot;free&amp;quot;, everyone in the area gets the benefit of it.&lt;p&gt;But if I wish to purchase internet from a different provider, I still have to subsidize other people&amp;#x27;s internet.  I&amp;#x27;m forced to pay for something whether I use it or not.</text></item><item><author>bluejekyll</author><text>&amp;gt; Municipal broadband is a government handout. It artificially lowers prices.&lt;p&gt;Government is funded by taxes from the people who live in the municipality. Even if they offer it for &amp;quot;free&amp;quot;, everyone in the area gets the benefit of it. This is like roads. Most communities pay for roads out of taxes or bonds levied on the community. None of that is a handout, on top of that, most places will still require you to pay for internet.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Municipal broadband expands the role of government. It&amp;#x27;s an extra program for the municipality to manage.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t necessarily bad, and requires voters be more involved in local politics to ensure that infrastructure in general is being kept up.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Expanding government programs is a tax on residents, even if they don&amp;#x27;t benefit from broadband access.&lt;p&gt;This repeats the first point, but, yes it&amp;#x27;s a tax, but to say that not everyone benefits? This past year showed how important it was for every student to have broadband access to attend remote learning. Seems hard to argue at this point that not everyone would benefit.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Municipal broadband is hostile to business. Companies cannot reasonably compete with a service that the government pumps money into.&lt;p&gt;To ISPs possibly, but not all businesses. Counter point, municipal broadband will benefit many businesses by ensuring that they have high-quality fast internet, that allows them to keep in better touch with their customers. This is pro-business, not anti.</text></item><item><author>legerdemain</author><text>- Municipal broadband is a government handout. It artificially lowers prices.&lt;p&gt;- Municipal broadband expands the role of government. It&amp;#x27;s an extra program for the municipality to manage.&lt;p&gt;- Expanding government programs is a tax on residents, even if they don&amp;#x27;t benefit from broadband access.&lt;p&gt;- Municipal broadband is hostile to business. Companies cannot reasonably compete with a service that the government pumps money into.</text></item><item><author>freedomben</author><text>Can someone explain (preferably steel man) the GOP argument here?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>r00fus</author><text>Arguably, your purchased internet will be of better quality and have better support because of competition than if they remained a local monopoly (which is the case is a vast majority of regions).&lt;p&gt;Especially if the service eventually becomes revenue positive and pays for itself, possibly providing non-tax revenue into the municipal general fund and &lt;i&gt;lowering&lt;/i&gt; your tax load.</text></comment>