Delusions
by James on Jul.07, 2010, under Rant
Now I do read Boing Boing, they have some interesting stuff from time to time. One thing, though, that I dislike is that the site’s founder, Cory Doctorow, seems to be batshit insane. He regularly makes position statements and then backs them up with evidence that either makes no sense or contradicts him.
Case in point. Apparently some lady stops to lecture kids on the benefit of selling their product instead of giving it away. Is she a douchebag if this actually happened, sure, they’re kids. Then Doctorow goes off on some weird tangent about companies taking stuff and then selling it. As evidence he says:
Sounds about right — companies take over our public aquifers and sell us the water they pump out of them; telcos get our rights of way for their infrastructure, then insist that they be able to tier their pricing without regard to the public interest.
A little bizarre. Most companies have to pay leases to the government to tap those aquifers. Even if they don’t, he’s free to drill his own well and even give it away if he wants, see how much money it’ll cost him to drill the hole, lay the pipes, pump the water and then maintain the whole damn system.
Then he complains about the phone company laying wires on his property. Once again, apparently this infrastructure is magically free in his world and apparently he’s hoping the phone fairy will come along and connect his calls.
It’s called TINSTAAFL (There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch), Cory. I learned it in high school econ.
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