Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for January 31, 2010

Pa Poodinski can’t be any worse than Ma Bell! Who are you calling, Opus?

I miss the old days when there was just one.

classic, I still remember this one clearly

So far as I’ve ever been able to see, deregulation was the end of good telephone service for us all. Too many cooks really do spoil the broth.

jrbj, ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????? My basic telephone bill hasn’t really gone up (and adjusted for inflation, has gone down dramatically) in the 25+ years of deregulation, my long distance charges have completely disappeared, and competition has brought about an insane amount of new innovative services. The early days of competition brought call waiting, caller ID, call blocking, etc… Now we have digital telephone and the telephone companies scrambling to bring us broadband media capability to compete with the TV companies.

I’ve never had a dead line in that time, and the audio fidelity has increased dramatically.

Competition has been fantastic.

There were some positive results from dereg, but no one makes a phone as tough and long lasting as the old Western Electrics. These cheesy little solid state things are 3-5 year throw-aways.

Sounds like Pa may be too.

EScott2U: As with any thing, like the prospectus’ says, “Your results may vary.”

What really happened is that we now have the telephonic equivalent of the music and video industry “format wars.” (Remember Beta versus VHS?) And whether or not your phone bill shows improvement, I can assure you we are all paying for these changes in one way or another.

For instance, all of the new 4 G networks are going onto bandwidth that became available after TV broadcasting was pushed into digital technology. Without your having to buy into digital television the current push to 4 G networks would not have been possible….so, you have already subsidized the possibly artificially low cost of telephone service…..the TV industry is just lucky that they could sell better picture quality as opposed to it being mandated like the deregulation of the telephone industry.

And those who can’t or won’t move to the new ‘format’ get left behind….

So just because you don’t see a monetary cost difference, doesn’t mean its not costing you, perhaps exorbitantly, in other ways.

And Enron will always be a poster child for the pitfalls of deregulation, like what was it, MCI?

At least Pa cares enough to handle things personally. Try getting someone who can even speak English on Ma’s end.

Long live the small business owner.

Deregulation has ruined everything it ever fooled into it.

FUBAR– Doesn’t even make my give shoot list !! Have’nt had a land line in 2 years. $50 a month cell with boost, gives me unlimited everything.Nerds need to get a life. Better yet get a Jeep & start living. Tread lightly & eat desert first !!!!

I still remember a Saturday Night Live bit, back in the days of Ma Bell, where Lily Tomlin’s “Ernestine” character was in a mock ad for the phone company; the slogan was, “We don’t care. We don’t have to.” It was a well-known bit because there was a chilling truth to it.

This is why I say that the only good Monopoly is the board game.

Sherlock, you have a point, and yet many people think the coming monopoly on health care will be a good thing. Think “Amtrak” and “USPS” and “Social Security”.