Ludwig von Mises dedicated a great amount of ink to the role that ideas play in shaping society. Not only does his analysis illustrate why it is so important to educate the public on topics such as economics, but also explains the enormous danger posed by widely accepted political myths. Examples include various false narratives such as deregulation caused the financial crisis, that American healthcare costs are driven up due to ‘capitalism,’ or FDR saved America from the Great Depression. Of course these various fictions, which all enjoy the support of most of the ‘intellectual’ class, all conveniently lead to policy prescriptions that justify ever greater government intervention into the economy and individual’s daily lives.
In recent years another dangerous myth has worked its way into the American zeitgeist: that government is the only thing guaranteeing us a free and open internet.
Cloaked in the friendly phrase ‘net neutrality’ is an agenda of greater government control. The idea turned into political action in 2015 when the Obama administration ordered that internet providers be treated as public utilities when the FCC reclassified them under Title II of the Communications Act. This move gave the government the ability to regulate the services provided by broadband companies. As a Title II utility, a company would be required to treat all websites equally, and prevented from engaging in behavior like making Netflix load faster than MySpace. While this was sold as a way to protect small companies from being bullied by larger ones, we’ve actually seen the opposite happen in practice. T-Mobile, for example, was criticized for violating net-neutrality when it offered free video streaming as a way to build its positioning among mobile network providers.
This post was published at Ludwig von Mises Institute on June 13, 2017.
Follow on Twitter
Recent Comments