Washington Attorney General Supports Controversial Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is a hot topic in Washington D.C. Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson this week said he supports FCC Commissioner Tim Wheeler's plan to ensure what he calls "net neutrality."Supporters say it will ensure Internet providers don't charge content providers for preferential treatment. The plan would regulate Internet providers as utilities.

Ferguson made this controversial claim about the current situation:

Net neutrality is the principle that all data should be treated equally by Internet Service Providers. Without it, providers could impose a tiered service system, where some companies pay to allow people to access their data more quickly. Providers could also slow down access to companies who don’t pay."

Forbes Magazine in 2013 put out an excellent article pointing out Obama has done the same thing in his Stimulus Package where he granted billions in government contracts, loans and grants to preferential green energy companies -- most of which went bankrupt.

This is one of the best arguments against it, from the Forbes article:

Net neutrality seems like a simple concept: the company that links your computer/tablet/smartphone to the Internet should not be able to discriminate among users and providers in the level of connectivity service provided. That is, we should all be able to send and receive the same number of bits of data per second. This is a bad idea for the same reason that only having vanilla ice cream for sale is a bad idea: some people want, and are willing to pay for, something different. Forcing a one-size-fits-all solution on the Internet stifles innovation by blocking some companies from turning new ideas or business models into successful products."

Forbes also points out that by the time the government studies how the Internet really works, and figures it out (which would take years) the current technology will have moved on to bigger and better "toys." The policies the government crafts will be woefully out of date. It would be like trying to run a current internet service provider company using Windows NT technology. Don't remember that? Most people don't either -- it's from 1992 and was the predecessor to Windows 95.