Friday, February 8, 2008

Europe's Internet Troubles (Fernando Herrera-Gonzalez)

Fernando Herrera-Gonzalez says the British telecommunications industry is headed back down the unfortunate road toward central planning, and once again shows that government can't do anything right:

In a recent article, I described how the European Commission was planning to foster broadband penetration across European countries. The EC's main proposal was explained in the light of the theory of price control, developed by Ludwig von Mises.

According to Mises, in the final stage of the process the government "must fix the prices of raw materials and semi-manufactured products, and eventually also wage rates, and force businessmen and workers to produce and labor at these prices."

I closed with this question: "by which proposed means will the government lead the market into this last stage of the theory, central planning?"

It turns out the answer was at hand, less than a thousand miles north of Spain, in Great Britain.

Read the rest

No comments: