European telcos squeal: should we care?

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Dennis is a true European!: His blog makes it perfectly clear. He talks about the "charges we're forced to pay by telecoms operators" (sic) when traveling internationally. That verbiage could have come right out of Brussels. Who is forcing Dennis to pay those charges? Nobody! If he thinks they are too high all he has to do is not incur them. Or he can go to a carrier whose price structure he likes better. Forcing? C'mon!

Later he says, "No-one I know believes in heavy regulation but there are times when regulation can come to our aid." Well THAT'S certainly true. If the government can force someone to sell you something at a price lower than what he wants to sell it for -- well that's certainly coming to your aid. Maybe they should force the telecoms to pay YOU for using their services. That would REALLY be coming to your aid!

Then Dennis adds, "I leave it to readers to decide whether GSMA has much to moan about. But as a clue, Vodafone?s annual revenues were last reported at ?35.5 ($69) billion ..." So I guess what he's trying to imply is that if someone is successful at offering products that people want at prices they're willing to pay and he makes a lot of money then he deserves to be penalized by being forced to sell his product to people like Dennis at some lower price that he wants. High profits are prima facie evidence that something is wrong and government intervention is needed.

This is typical of the pervasive European outlook that people who have been successful must somehow have done it illegitimately. Since the open marketplace continues to buy their products and services at the prices offered, the only way to penalize them it to use the overwhelming power of government to strike back at them and force them to sell at lower prices so that their profits will be reduced.

Dennis seems to fit right in. There must be a place for him on some commission somewhere in Brussels! After all, everything hasn't been regulated yet and more commissions are always needed. Or I could be wrong -- maybe everything is already regulated?; Posted by: spruce Posted on: 07/15/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use