Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is a term that has been appearing across the internet and in American Media, but what is it and how does it link to Economics.

What is Net Neutrality?
Net Neutrality means neutrality across the internet, which is the theory that each user on the internet should have equal access to websites and each website should have an equal chance.
In other words you pay for internet access but not for each website.

Why is it an issue at the moment?
Net neutrality has become an issue at the moment because some american internet provides are not following the ideals of net neutrality, they are changing more for some websites than when accessing others.

What is the importance of Net Neutrality?
Net Neutrality is vital, at present the internet is a 'free' while you must pay for access once on the internet each website has an equal footing with the next website. If firms start charging for access to websites there are huge social and economic consequences!
Socially it will mean that smaller websites will be weakened against larger websites, if their is free access to main stream media and it costs a lot more to access an independent website then instantly the free of speech on the internet becomes threatened. The advantage of the Internet now is that everyone has an equal say, you can go to any website and it will cost the same as accessing another, so you can choice where to get your news, information and entertainment. If firms break net neutrality then they can price out the competition.
Economically the fall of Net Neutrality is a disaster. What is glorious about the internet is is very few barriers to entry, which has greatly increased competition is most markets and in the internet industry itself lead to huge leaps of innovation and markets that are close to that of perfect competition (the blog market for example).
Also with the fall of net neutrality firms have an anti-competitive weapon to used to wipe out their competitors, as explained in the video bellow if internet providers can charge consumers for each website they access then they can offer some for free and charge huge amounts for others which will wipe them out.

Steve Wozniak co-founder of Apple is amount many trying to save net neutrality. It should be a social and economic priority for all peoples and nations!

Top American Youtube news reporter and Vlogger Phillip DeFranco explains the concept perfectly in this video:

Bank of England's independence threatened

Bank of England's independence threatened

Mervin King, Governor of the Bank of England, is under pressure to resign after WikiLeaks revealed he had less faith in David Cameron.
The WikiLeaks articles contained this document from a US ambassador : "He [Mr King] opined that party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne have not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending," Since this has emerged Mr King has been pressured to resign.
Reports state that leading Economist David Blanch Flower states: Mr kings "thirst for power and influence ... has clouded his judgment one too many times".  That he should quit because of political bias.

Mervin King should not quit for exactly that reason!
He was reported to have concerns about the Government, this is merely his opinion. While Mr King may be using his influence surely he is entitled to an opinion.
If he is forced to resign for expressing some concern about the Government it will seriously question the independence of the Bank of England. If the Bank of England is a truly independent body then the Governor, while working closely with the Government, should be allowed to judgement. If every Governor that questions the Government is removed then surely we might as well take monetary policy back to 10 down street !

Mini Skirts sparking a surprising philosophical debate

Italian city banning certain forms of 'inapproprate' clothing.. In particular mini skirts because it says it is indecent. ringing any alarm bells? Far right resricting freedoms maybe.

When we get cultural crack downs it is the first step on the dangerous road, its a slippery slope and telling people what they can and can't wear on their own body can become telling people what they can and can't do or who can and can't live.
Decently laws are considered important to maintain society as we know it but tightening them is alarming considering the trend of restricting freedoms we already have, for example controlling the internet.
The debate is hard, just as we argue over wether the government should intervene in the free market, how far should they intervene in society. Laws are a good thing but too many laws can be even worse than none.
Should laws protect everyone equally or protect the powerful?
How far do laws go before they restrict our rights?
If we police the internet we can prevent disgraceful crimes such as child pornography but it can go too far and nations in China police it to the extent that you can't express opinion against the government.

The reason all of this concerns me is that we have an increasing rise in the far right in Europe and in the UK we have problems such as fixed terms for Government lasting 5 years! A well meaning policy can start a landslide that eventually crushes freedoms and provides the bedrock for a dictators palace.

That skirt is far to short, go back to Rome and change.

Banning Miniskirts:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11617091