Tell me if I am wrong, but what ISPs are doing sounds/feels a whole hell of lot like a money laundering scheme. ISPs donate to political campaigns, in exchange the government gives them billions of dollars back. This money is meant to be used for infrastructure upgrades. We all know they don't spend it on upgrades. With ATT spending it on iphone exclusive rights for a few years and other things. The united states government hates money laundering, in fact it is supposed to be illegal. Any thought on this? Should the ISPs go to prison? If it is money laundering they absolutely should be in prison, making billions for corporate prisons. Anyways that is my take on this whole fiasco.
They can't legally bribe if that is the case. Because bribing is just as illegal as money laundering. The definition of money laundering is this. Exchanging one some of money for another some, it doesnt have to be drug money, gun smuggling, sex trafficking (can be equal, more, or less in value). The bad money laundering, the ones the government actually cares about are those ones (drug, sex, gun trafficking). Regardless of that it is exchanging one sum of money for another. In this case it is campaign donations for government bail outs that aren't used for the intended purposes it is meant to be used for.
Sadly there is a legal form of bribery called lobbying and the saddest part is the US supreme court declared it as constitutional as it "in no way resembles corruption". Its really sad
"But Corporations are people too"...... just no
First of all, it seems you need to understand what money laundering is. Very simply, money laundering is taking money that is obtained (earned) from an illegal activity and combining it with a legal one (usually for tax reasons). For example, selling cocaine on a street corner would have to have the money from that activity "laundered" with something like selling flowers in order to account for it. And there are any number of reasons why you'd want to do that. Here are some of the more obvious ones:
1.) To avoid tax evasion and the IRS.
2.) To mislead law enforcement or any other regulatory agency like a bank from not accepting a deposit since it's actually against the law to accept money which is known to have come from illegal activities.
3.) To take your illegal money and make more money in a more lucrative activity such as putting it into the Stock Market or buying real estate, etc. (Ever see the show The Soppranos? That kind of thing.)
So what Comcast, ATT, Verizon, etc. are doing I don't see exactly as laundering but rather as hording it in slush schemes. And this kind of money shifting activity is rather common within big business too. Often it's even LEGAL where complete bogus companies/subsidiaries are created. But it doesn't mean that it's honorable or moral. So I do feel your outrage. There ought to be a law...
And if you're outraged by the tax breaks these "thieving ISP's" got in the form of tax breaks and deregulation (which allows them to stick it to the consumer), you really need to be writing your Congress critter and demanding that corporation tax loop holes are closed and that whatever we currently have as a tax code is overhauled. And while you're at it, you might even demand campaign finance reforms too (stop big money from lobbying, reform PAC funds, that sort of thing).
In the meantime, there are things we can all do to protest. For me, I turned off cable TV and especially the land line phone service. (Though I did opt for a VoIP service with someone else. But that's another discussion.) So if you too use a cable company to get high speed internet then you might also want to turn down the money spigot and turn off those same services. Tell them that as long as you have no choice with the Internet that you still want them to go suck an egg instead of your wallet! (There's always over the air TV and shows you can get from the Internet). But this kind of change will require a change of habit which is exactly why this fight probably won't go so well -- humans are creatures of habit and often hate anything that inconveniences them.
So if you ask me, that's where your outrage should be directed -- at your ignorant neighbor with the 1000 premium cable package and the ridiculously high bill that they pay. Any time I hear about a show on a premium channel like HBO that everyone can't stop talking about, it's a pretty good indication that you're dealing with one of these ignoramuses or other selfish bastards. Because by their very actions/inaction's to turn down or turn off the money spigot they actually help the thieving ISP's -- which in turn, hurts us all!
One way we could get the message heard loud and clear would be to have a month of protest where a LOT -- and I do mean a LOT -- of people decided to turn off their cable/phone service. Though, good luck with that one.
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P.S. I know I mentioned the show The Soppranos and then eluded that subscribing to HBO was part of the problem. However, I think you should mention that I finally just saw that show only 2 years ago once I was finally able to rent the DVD's from a now out of business local Blockbuster.
My Political Science professor even agreed with me. It doesn't have to be an illegal source exchanged for a clean supply. It is money for money, regardless of its legality. Then again my professor could be wrong, but he is a education professional for a reason. The phrase money laundering is used by the government for their means (war on terror, drugs, sex, guns, etc) and because of this they are able to phrase legal bribery as well lobbying. The term laundry which is what the government likes, makes it seem like all money for money exchanges is dirty money being cleaned. Hence laundering.
You are right that we need to protest this. However, protesting doesn't work. Did it work for the FCC vote? Has it worked for lobbying in the past for companies such as oil or hollywood? No it hasn't. What needs to be done is that we need more than protest. We need people, like minded to ourselves in political office. However, it wont happen because said companies wont ever donate to said candidate.
PS. I am one of those people who often double down on their opinion even if they are wrong. Which a lot of people do. But this time I am doing so, because I had asked my professor this as a topic for a short story I was asked to write given a hypothetical situation regarding politics. We could both be wrong, politically speaking. However, bribery is the same thing as lobbying, just politically speaking it is not.
Funny you should mention the protesting thing.....
Once upon a time, not so long ago, i had an idea for a Large scale protest.... Sadly, i dont know enough people, and dont have a large enough bank account, nor am i Eloquent nor educated enough to convice a large enough group of people to do it with me....
Just in case anyone got curious.... Think "Earth Hour" ( http://tinyurl.com/2zq9mz ) but a day without internet instead....