This Time, the Left Is Right: Let's Be More Like Europe

The Left has spent decades telling us we need to be more like Europe.

We the People were, rightly, never overly fond of the idea.

Americans Were Horrified to Be Told to Live Like Europeans

Which perpetually perplexes the Left.

Why Do So Many Americans Say ‘We Don’t Want to Be Like Europe?’

The very many very other obvious reasons aside….

European Socialism: Why America Doesn’t Want It

Here’s an excellent question….

If Europe Is a Much Better Place to Live Than the US, Why Do So Many People Still Choose to Move to the US Rather Than to Europe?

When the rubber meets the road — it’s people heading out of Europe to the US.

Of course, the Left never allows the facts to get in the way of a good beating.

When it comes to the Internet, the Left incessantly tells us about how much better Europe does it.

Why is European Broadband Faster and Cheaper?

I’ll field that one. It’s called landmass. Most European countries are smaller than Texas. And we have forty-nine other states to additionally connect. So each European country has to dig MUCH less trench, lay MUCH less cable, and spot MANY fewer transmission towers than we in the US do.

Oh: Except when the China Virus rubber met the road….

China Virus Breaks Europe’s Internet – Not the US’s

China Virus Lockdown Proves US Internet is Better, Stronger and Faster Than Europe’s

But the Left and Europe occasionally, accidentally swerve into being correct. When they do, I say: The Left is right — let’s be more like Europe.

Blind pig, meet acorn….

European Phone Companies Say Big Tech Should Support Infrastructure

Oh wait – it’s Europe emulating US after all…:

“In a move which would be familiar to net neutrality campaigners in the US, European telecom’s networks are saying that the US tech giants should bear some of the costs of developing Europe’s telecoms networks because they use them so heavily.”

Yes, some of us in the US have been demanding the exact same thing.

We’re About to Pay Billions More Per Year for Big Tech’s Government Cronyism

Another Big Tech Crony Free Ride That Needs to End

Senate Republicans Propose Making Big Tech Pay For Internet Infrastructure:

“‘For too long, Big Tech has been able to profit off of the critical infrastructure used for common day-to-day activities while not helping at a sufficient level to improve those capabilities with broadband investment….’”

Ending Big Tech’s Free Ride:

“Big Tech has been enjoying a free ride on our internet infrastructure while skipping out on the billions of dollars in costs needed to maintain and build that network. Indeed, one study shows that the online streaming services provided by just five companies—Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Microsoft—account for a whopping 75 percent of all traffic on rural broadband networks.

“The same study shows that 77-94 percent of total network costs are related to adding capacity or otherwise supporting the delivery of those streaming services. Ordinary Americans, not Big Tech, have been footing the bill for those costs.

“Yet Big Tech derives tremendous value from these high-speed networks. Indeed, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google generated nearly $1 trillion in revenues in 2020 alone—an almost 20 percent increase over the prior year.

“It would take just 0.009 percent of those revenues to eliminate entirely the unsustainable 30 percent tax that currently hits consumers on their monthly bills….

“Ending Big Tech’s free ride on the internet would represent a long-overdue return to the historic compact under which the businesses that benefit from a network pay their fair share for it. It would lower monthly bills for millions of Americans.”

So…Europe is right. And the US is right. And the Left is…inadvertently, unintentionally right.

It’s time for Big Tech to finally kick in. To help pay for the Internet infrastructure that has made them free-ride-trillionaires.