
Ask HN: Should we ban free shipping? - miguelrochefort
Most people on HN seem to support net neutrality. But what about delivery neutrality?<p>If Netflix can&#x27;t provide free streaming by paying to send you packets, then Amazon shouldn&#x27;t be able to provide free shipping by paying to send you packages.<p>Think about how unfair this is to small businesses who can&#x27;t negotiate such deals with shipping companies, and have to charge their customers more for delivery. Surely, they won&#x27;t stand a chance against Amazon if this continues.<p>Given that most of you want to ban free streaming, would you also want to ban free shipping?
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chrisbennet
When it comes to the internet, I’ve _already paid_ my ISP for the delivery of
those packets.

If package delivery was something I’d already paid my Package Delivery
Provider (PDP) for. Packed Delivery Neutrality would mean:

\- I wouldn’t want them picking and choosing who I got my packages from.

\- If my PSP also sold goods, I wouldn’t want them purposely slowing down
packages come from a competitor.

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miguelrochefort
I'm only paying my ISP so much money because there are no other options
(thanks to net neutrality). If there were cheaper subsidized options, I would
highly consider them.

What if I only order stuff from Amazon and don't want to pay a PDP for
delivery from other stores? Should the government make that illegal?

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dozzie
> I'm only paying my ISP so much money because there are no other options
> (thanks to net neutrality).

No. This is thanks to you living under a monopoly, which seems to be a natural
equilibrium state for infrastructure. Net neutrality has nothing to do with
monopoly holder extracting as much as they can get away with. You would see
exactly the same if you were getting your water from mostly unregulated
private company.

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miguelrochefort
Then why the hell are we fighting for net neutrality when the real problem is
that ISPs are monopolies? Net neutrality won't do anything to fix that.

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tobylane
Neutrality is a fix for a monopoly. Monopolies won't get fixed because of the
geographical scale and the politics involved.

The UK 'unbundled' its internet about 15 years ago, where each (usually around
10 in urban areas) ISP has equal access to the line between a local exchange
and the end user. They also buy bandwidth on the big pipes between the local
exchanges and the internet, or lays their own pipes. It's the true fix, where
neutrality is a realistic fix (that you might need either way).

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celticninja
Do I get a point for spotting the straw man?

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miguelrochefort
Don't net neutrality advocates precisely want to prevent Netflix from
subsidizing access to their sevice through some ISPs?

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sharemywin
This is like paying to have a package shipped and amazon raising prices
because the shippers charge amazon for picking up the package.

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ttoinou
Yes ! Even more, we could ban everything produced by private companies. Once
unfair competition gone, maybe our governments will be able to finally launch
new services

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PaulHoule
Small businesses can offer free shipping, they just have to build it into
their prices, the way AMZN does.

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rajacombinator
B-but it’s called neutrality that means it’s neutral right?

