The Trojan Horse of Net Neutrality

By:  Dale Weckbacher

Genesis 3:4-5

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

NKJV

The story of the Trojan horse is a great example of what happens when something looks good on the surface but later proves to be destructive.  In the account of Eve’s interaction with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, we see Satan appealing to Eve’s pride.  God had explicitly instructed both Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Had Adam and Eve simply obeyed the command of God, there would not have been a fall of mankind.  However, Satan created the impression that God was somehow depriving them of something they needed, the knowledge of good and evil. 

Looking back at what Adam and Eve did we can surmise that they might have thought how dare God deprive us of the knowledge of good and evil.  They might have then looked at the fruit and thought how beautiful and tasty this fruit is.  It was then that God steps in and they discover the destructive reality contained in their decision to disobey God.  Satan continues to use this pattern of deception to entice us to disobey God only suffer the consequences of this disobedience. 

We also see this pattern of deception at work in the story of the Trojan horse.  The gift of the Trojan horse looked good to the people of Troy and without a second thought, they brought it into the city.  When the people of Troy saw the Greek fleet sailing away, they believed they had made the right decision, putting the final nail in the coffin of the deception that would be their downfall.  (1)

The idea of cheap and affordable anything is appealing to us all.  However, something that is cheap and affordable might also be of lessor quality.  We must therefore exercise caution for we usually get exactly what we pay for.  This is especially true of most government programs.

Obamacare is a prime example of this.  With the promise of affordable health insurance for all (2) , the promise people could keep their doctors and even their health insurance plans (3) , many voted for Obama and their members of Congress, in essence bringing in the Trojan horse.  Once Obamacare passed the Congress and Senate and the President signed it, voters discovered the truth of what was in the Trojan horse.  We than discovered that the Trojan horse of Obamacare contained higher premiums and deductibles (4) , loss of doctors (5) , people losing their insurance due to the employer mandate (6) , a website that does not work (7), and now fines assessed on tax returns (8). 

Now, the Trojan horse of net neutrality has entered our nation.  The only difference this time is that the Trojan horse did not enter the nation through the front door as Obamacare did by going through Congress, but through the back door of the unelected forth branch of government, the administrative branch.  However, like Obamacare, this Trojan horse promises affordable, fast internet for all but once the people discover the contents of the Trojan horse, people will discover equality in the internet, but it will be equally slow, not equally fast.  This is simply due to the economics of the internet. 

Faster internet is not free for the provider to provide but requires them to have additional server space and infrastructure (9) .  Under the present free market system, these providers provide this faster service by charging a premium price in order to pay for the additional costs they incur.  However, if these providers are no longer able to provide this premium service at a premium price, they will most likely not provide faster connections, relegating us all to slower connections. 

Even though net neutrality will mean slower service, the most alarming, and destructive, part of net neutrality is that it opens the door for governments to regulate internet content (10).  We could equate this to death panels for free speech.  Since there will be reduced bandwidth, providers will be looking for ways to restrict usage, similar to denying certain individuals health care.  This will most certainly lead to content restrictions in the interest of reducing usage to insure the internet infrastructure continues to function. 

Net Neutrality is just another government program promising something will be affordable and available for all, only to have citizens find out after its implementation that it actually destroys what it was intended to fix.  However, unlike Obamacare, Net Neutrality came about through an unelected regulatory government department, the FCC.  We must send a message to President Obama and any future president that might believe they can implement their agenda through the back door instead of going through the constitutional process by stopping net neutrality.  This can be accomplished through the legislative process or in court but it must be stopped. 

We must also ask if anyone has given it a thought to the fact that the same government that could not launch a successful website for Obamacare will not be in charge of net neutrality.  Saturday, we will look at the Trojan horse of Executive Amnesty. 

1. Stanford University. The Trojan War. www.stanford.edu. [Online] [Cited: March 2, 2015.] https://web.stanford.edu/~plomio/history.html.

2. Kessler, Glenn. President Obama’s claim that insurance premiums ‘will go down’. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online] The Washington Post, August 10, 2012. [Cited: October 4, 2013.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/president-obamas-claim-that-insurance-premiums-will-go-down/2012/08/09/424048f2-e245-11e1-a25e-15067bb31849_blog.html.

3. Bier, Jeryl. HHS Admits: You Might Not Be Able to Keep Your Doctor Under Obamacare. www.weeklystandard.com. [Online] The Weekly Standard, July 19, 2013. [Cited: August 2, 2013.] http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hhs-admits-you-might-not-be-able-keep-your-doctor-under-obamacare_740093.html.

4. Millman, Jason. Ohio becomes latest battleground in Obamacare premium wars. www.politico.com. [Online] Politico, August 2, 2013. [Cited: August 2, 2013.] http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/ohio-premiums-rates-going-up-95067.html?hp=l5.

5. Pipes, Sally. Thanks To Obamacare, A 20,000 Doctor Shortage Is Set To Quintuple. www.forbes.com. [Online] Forbes, June 10, 2013. [Cited: September 20, 2013.] http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2013/06/10/thanks-to-obamacare-a-20000-doctor-shortage-is-set-to-quintuple/.

6. Roy, Avik. White House To Delay Obamacare's Employer Mandate Until 2015; Far-Reaching Implications For The Private Health Insurance Market. www.forbes.com. [Online] Forbes, July 2, 2013. [Cited: August 17, 2013.] http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/07/02/white-house-to-delay-obamacares-employer-mandate-until-2015-far-reaching-implications-for-the-private-health-insurance-market/.

7. Simon, Phil. Healthcare.gov: Government IT Project Failure at its Finest. www.huffingtonpost.com. [Online] The Huffington Post, October 18, 2013. [Cited: December 30, 2014.] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-simon/healthcaregov-government_b_4125362.html.

8. CPA, Robert A Green. Obamacare Ushers In Pile Of New 2014 Tax Forms. www.forbes.com. [Online] Forbes, November 14, 2014. [Cited: March 3, 2015.] http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/11/14/obamacare-ushers-in-pile-of-new-2014-tax-forms/.

9. Brain, Marshall. What does a gigabyte of Internet service really cost? A look at the worst case scenario . blogs.howstuffworks.com. [Online] howstuffworks, April 7, 2011. [Cited: March 3, 2015.] http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/brainstuff/what-does-a-gigabyte-of-internet-service-really-cost-a-look-at-the-worst-case-scenario.htm.

10. Lee, Timothy B. How net neutrality regulations could undermine the open Internet. www.washingtonpost.com. [Online] The Washington Post, May 20, 2013. [Cited: March 3, 2015.] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/20/how-net-neutrality-regulations-could-undermine-the-open-internet/.