Re: [wg-review] A Reply to Miles B. Whitener... Re: The owners of "the Internet" must manage it for their own benefit

[Robin Miller <robin@minervan.com>]

Kent Crispin wrote:

> 
> You don't eat what you please, you eat what the restaurant cooks, or you
> go elsewhere.  The waiter has nothing to do with it -- the waiter is a
> flunky who works for the guy that owns the restaurant, and it is the guy
> who owns the restaurant that calls the shots.

geez, where do you live, the DDR?

if the guy that owns the restaurant doesn't please his clientele, he's pretty
quickly out of biz around here.

Every fine restaurant I've gone to, has granted special diet requests. Indeed
going very much out of their way to do so. They do their best to cook my food
as I want it - they even ask me how I want my meat cooked. Now of course if
your main fare is in a fast food restaurant, I understand that might be
difficult. Hence why I do not eat in fast food restaurants. (blech) In German
'fast' means 'almost'... and fast food is most certainly 'almost' food... Its
main attraction is that you get your food immediately... thanks but I can wait
for something better. Others 'think' they cannot (or they actually like fake
food), and so they eat there.

And yes, I eat what I please. I can choose between the grocer and my house
(where I can buy and cook exactly what I want) or umpteen different
restaurants, and choose the meal I prefer. Munich is nearly like New York City
when it comes to places to eat. They are everywhere, catering to every single
tastebud. They post the whole menu outside the door, so you can see what they
serve _before_ you walk in. 

The restaurant that cooks what most pleases my appetite at the moment, gets the
money. its simple market economics... no really... and if the restaurant serves
a bad meal, guess who doesn't get a second visit?? No second visit and bad
press reviews do a good job on making a restaurant a tad more responsive to its
diners (or they can go out of business)... Its not like one restaurant has some
kind of monopoly on food and can tell a diner off for the fun of it.

The ISP market isn't much different, although I have to say in Germany my
choices for dialup service are pretty limited - but Deutsche Telekom has
buckled to the demand of the market for lower prices on Internet services -
even with their near monopoly. I pay a fraction of what I used to only a couple
of years ago. We paid more when Telekom was controlled by a government
bureaucracy, believe it or not... the service was way worse then! But for
webhosters, my choice is pretty broad and the competition pretty fierce.

all the best, Robin
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