I recently published a video on Net Neutrality. It was met with some criticism and I want to address some of the most common concerns from viewers below:

“The TV/internet comparison is invalid.”

I’m not comparing internet with cable TV. I’m saying cable TV and internet are basically the same thing—they are both data transmitted over the same wire using portions of shared, finite bandwidth- albeit partitioned differently- and that data prioritization is in many ways a de facto neutrality nullification of cable even if it does not apply specifically to internet protocol. The Net Neutrality debate has centered around media companies like Netflix but no one has apparently noticed that, transmitted over the same wire using the same finite bandwidth, are several hundred TV channels (aka “data”) that provide faster, better, more reliable video content. On your cable wire, Netflix is already in a video slow lane. And, as I said in the video, while Netflix lets you stream whatever you want when you want it (unlike TV channels), cable providers DO actually offer analogous video on demand service using the TV channel fast lane of broadband cable. Even if you want to nitpick the technicals while disregarding the experiential similarities, I think this is at least an interesting angle to see the debate from. But I’m sorry if you didn’t think it was worth 3 minutes of your time.

“Cable companies are (or, are not) monopolies.”

Cable occupies the physical world. I do not know the numbers but I doubt it would be cost effective to run a cable to every person in a city without capturing the majority of them as customers. Having choices means there’s at least one unused copper wire sitting in your driveway. Also, seriously, what are you guys complaining about? My cable is fine. I even have it capped at 3.5Mbps and there are maybe one or two issues a year. I would rather have a customer service issue with Comcast than the Post Office, or even the utilities. The gas company made me wait a week for service to be turned on, and the window was “7am-8pm, potentially after 8pm.” No joke.

“Internet is a need/right –OR- Gas/electricity is NOT a need.”

This is absurd. If gas/electricity were shut off for a week in New York City, people would die. If internet was shut off, they might make new friends and realize life is short and we are all just vibrations of mass and energy in a perfectly balanced universe. Yeah, internet may one day supplant other services and become a life or death thing for most people, but it isn’t right now and I’m talking about the present. If you want to challenge internet companies, be prepared to walk to the public library to look up who played the drunk friend in “Rocky.” I run a business from home (westernrazor.com) and my ISP is the best value-for-money expense I have.

“John Oliver is on Comedy Central, not a premium channel.”

Use your hard fought internet to figure that one out for yourself.

“You didn’t try hard enough or do enough research.”

Sorry. I promise the next video will make this one look well researched.