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[1750.52 --> 1750.58] Hmm. |
[1750.98 --> 1751.34] What do you mean? |
[1751.34 --> 1752.90] At least maybe not a hundred years ago. |
[1753.04 --> 1753.22] The Mayflower. |
[1753.34 --> 1753.94] That ship's... |
[1753.94 --> 1754.76] Yeah, no, not the Mayflower. |
[1754.94 --> 1755.04] Oh. |
[1755.20 --> 1761.28] But the ship of having an unregulated market for telecommunications has already sailed. |
[1761.42 --> 1761.94] I see. |
[1762.34 --> 1763.00] So now... |
[1763.00 --> 1764.54] We already have regulations, so... |
[1764.54 --> 1769.12] You have to regulate it because building up that infrastructure was a joint enterprise |
[1769.12 --> 1770.82] between the private and the public sector. |
[1770.82 --> 1777.12] So because there was a public investment in it, there have to be public rules and that |
[1777.12 --> 1779.40] infrastructure has to continue to serve the public. |
[1780.30 --> 1781.38] It's already a done deal. |
[1782.38 --> 1788.08] And besides, the alternative, having just any Tom, Dick, and Harry be allowed to start |
[1788.08 --> 1795.46] their ISP without regulations and, you know, build, put down fiber lines or run copper wiring |
[1795.46 --> 1797.76] wherever they want, it's anarchy. |
[1797.76 --> 1802.46] I mean, it's like when you go to a developing nation and you look at a telephone pole and |
[1802.46 --> 1808.74] you go, my goodness, that is a fire hazard because there's so many different lines running |
[1808.74 --> 1809.54] every which way. |
[1809.64 --> 1810.38] There's no... |
[1810.38 --> 1812.52] There's nothing to keep it under control. |
[1812.72 --> 1813.00] Yeah. |
[1813.24 --> 1819.32] When you actually don't necessarily need that much if you've got cooperation of the companies |
[1819.32 --> 1823.78] that manage these lines and you've got a regulating body sitting over top, making sure |
[1823.78 --> 1824.94] that everyone is playing fairly. |
[1824.94 --> 1831.52] I mean, I also see the argument from the perspective of like, hey, we should like set it up so that |
[1831.52 --> 1836.12] these companies are incentivized to expand their network and make things better. |
[1836.24 --> 1840.28] But the problem is, is that like you said, well, like you said, there's already regulation |
[1840.28 --> 1846.32] and also internet is way more of a crucial part of everyday life. |
[1847.32 --> 1847.46] Yeah. |
[1847.58 --> 1848.32] In 2018. |
[1848.32 --> 1853.22] So it's like these kinds of rules I think are definitely a little backwards thing. |
[1853.22 --> 1857.74] And the other issue with these, with the sort of the free market argument is that it makes |
[1857.74 --> 1862.22] a lot of very optimistic assumptions about the way that businesses will behave. |
[1862.46 --> 1866.88] So the free market argument for, well, there's an ISP nearby. |
[1867.22 --> 1870.82] Surely they could build out another half mile of fiber in order to access these customers. |
[1870.82 --> 1875.98] So you could say, well, surely that's the way that a competitive company would behave. |
[1876.28 --> 1876.72] Right. |
[1877.04 --> 1878.86] Except that it might not be. |
[1879.18 --> 1882.76] It might actually be much more profitable for that company to say, hey. |
[1883.08 --> 1884.28] We got a monopoly over here. |
[1884.34 --> 1886.62] Hey, bud, you keep your monopoly over there. |
[1886.88 --> 1888.10] We'll keep ours over here. |
[1888.10 --> 1888.30] Yeah. |
[1888.50 --> 1895.00] Neither of us will invest in any new fiber and we'll each just charge more because who are |
[1895.00 --> 1895.56] you going to go to? |
[1895.56 --> 1897.30] And then they do one of these. |
[1899.80 --> 1905.22] And I mean, you saw something similar happen with the corporate tax breaks that recently |
[1905.22 --> 1905.96] happened in the US. |
[1906.06 --> 1907.84] Like, look, I'm a business owner. |
[1908.26 --> 1912.38] I would love if my corporate tax rate was 21%. |
[1912.38 --> 1914.14] It is a lot higher than that. |
[1914.42 --> 1916.28] That would be super cool for me. |
[1917.68 --> 1919.24] Who else would it be cool for? |
[1919.58 --> 1925.54] The theory was it would be super cool for the customers and the employees who would definitely |
[1925.54 --> 1927.36] get those savings passed along to them. |
[1927.66 --> 1932.14] In practice, what we're really seeing is a lot of stock buybacks. |
[1932.40 --> 1933.72] Do you know what stock buybacks do? |
[1934.44 --> 1937.68] They don't lower the price of the product for the customer. |
[1937.96 --> 1942.78] So I can pretty much guarantee you that the new iPhone Xs that Apple unveils on September |
[1942.78 --> 1945.94] the 12th are not going to have a 10% price break. |
[1946.66 --> 1947.58] Guarantee you that one. |
[1948.66 --> 1949.54] Take that to the bank. |
[1949.98 --> 1951.48] They do not go to the employees. |
[1951.48 --> 1954.64] There were a couple of token wage increases that did occur. |
[1955.20 --> 1959.60] But by and large, that has not been the trend that everyone gets paid 10% more. |
[1960.38 --> 1967.74] So what a stock buyback does is it creates a shortage of the available stocks for that |
[1967.74 --> 1970.44] company because they are effectively buying their own stocks. |
[1970.56 --> 1974.26] And stocks, the pricing of a stock is entirely controlled by supply and demand. |
[1974.26 --> 1980.32] So if a company is running out and buying back its own stocks, what it is effectively doing |
[1980.32 --> 1985.04] is increasing the value of the stocks that are already held by shareholders. |
[1985.76 --> 1990.46] So the shareholders are making money, bearing in mind, of course, that any money you own |
[1990.46 --> 1992.90] in stocks is paper money. |
[1992.98 --> 1995.24] It's theoretical money until you actually sell it for a currency. |
[1995.36 --> 1999.76] But then again, currencies can fluctuate far more these days than a lot of people would |
[1999.76 --> 2000.46] be comfortable with. |
[2000.46 --> 2004.92] So you could again make the argument that paper money is also just paper money. |
[2005.90 --> 2008.36] And maybe we should all just go back to gold. |
[2008.50 --> 2012.02] I mean, now all of a sudden we're going down a rabbit hole. |
[2012.56 --> 2017.74] But the point is, many of the stockholders, the shareholders for these large publicly traded |
[2017.74 --> 2020.42] companies are the executives that work for them. |
[2021.36 --> 2026.30] So who ended up getting paid when a company like... |
[2026.30 --> 2027.02] And actually, you know what? |
[2027.02 --> 2030.10] I'm not going to use any specifics because I can't remember off the top of my head. |
[2030.10 --> 2033.94] Any that have participated in a great deal of buying back of stock. |
[2034.32 --> 2036.60] But the people getting paid are the people who own shares. |
[2036.70 --> 2038.96] And some of those people are members of the general public. |
[2039.26 --> 2043.46] But this was pitched as some kind of a boon for the everyman. |
[2044.06 --> 2049.20] And as a business owner, I can tell you, anyone out there who's trying to make the argument |
[2049.20 --> 2054.92] that business owners were going to take an extra double digit percentage of effective profits |
[2054.92 --> 2060.14] and just go up in their zeppelin and throw it out of the... |
[2060.14 --> 2060.68] Throw it out of... |
[2060.68 --> 2063.18] Rain it down on the people, on the downtrodden. |
[2063.30 --> 2063.56] Yeah. |
[2063.88 --> 2064.56] Is an idiot. |
[2065.04 --> 2066.24] That's not how... |
[2066.24 --> 2067.18] That's not... |
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