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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 2014)
®’?e Ç ortlanh (Observer Page 6 March 5, 2014 New Prices Effective May 1,2010 Martin Cleaning Service •' ,< W R E T hé i N f ô p / H A f t O b l § b p É R H |< 5 ^ Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG $45.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 small Hallway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With O ther Services): $25.00 Area/Oriental Rugs: $25.00Minimum Area/Oriental Rugs (Wool): $40.00Minimum Heavily Soiled Area: Additional $10.00 each area (Requiring Extensive Pre-Spraying) UPHOLSTERY CLEANING Sofa: $69.00 Loveseat: $49.00 Sectional: $109 - $139 Chair or Recliner: $25 - $49 Throw Pillows (With th Other Services): $5.00 % W ADDITIONAL SERVICES • Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning • Auto/Boat/RV Cleaning • Deodorizing & Pet Odor Treatment • Spot & Stain Removal Service • Scotchguard Protection • Minor Water Damage Services SEE CURRENT FLYER FOR ADDITIONAL PRICES & SERVICES Call for Appointment (503) 281-3949 Roadblocks to the Information Superhighway Falling short on putting the public first by S am P izzigati Back in the in fan c y of th e Internet Age, our h ip p e s t p o lic y wonks orated end le s s ly a b o u t th e emerging “information superhigh way.” But that m outhful of a m oniker w ould soon fall out o f fashion. A nyone today who talks about the “inform ation superhighw ay” com es across as a hopelessly uncool 1990s throwback. The irony here? If we truly treated the Internet as a “super highw ay,” m aybe we w ouldn’t find ourselves in the online mess that now envelops us. Am ericans currently pay much more for Internet access than ju st about everybody else in the de veloped world. M any other coun tries have established fast, cheap Internet access as a given of m od ern life. In the United States, we surf the Net at M odel T speeds — and tens o f m illions of Am ericans still have no broadband at all. This pitiful situation may soon get even worse. Two corporate giants, Com cast and Time W arner, are now seeking regulatory ap proval for a $45 billion merger that w ould leave C om cast controlling the bulk o f the nation’s broad band access. In 19 o f the nation’s 20 larg e st m etro a re a s, the “o n ly choice for a high-capacity wired connection will be C om cast,” points out telecom industry w atchdog Susan Crawford. So how would thinking “super h ig h w ay ” help us out o f this m ess? A m erica’s only actual “su p erhighw ay” — our Interstate road netw ork — dem onstrates quite neatly the wonders we can realize once we start thinking about basic infrastructure as a public good, not a source o f grand private fortune. O ur Interstate’s greatest cham p io n , P re s id e n t D w ig h t Eisenhow er, believed that every citizen had a “vital interest” in a “safe and adequate highway sys tem .” In 1956, Ike signed legisla tion that authorized A m erica’s largest public works project ever, the construction o f a new super highway that would operate to tally under public control. T his p u b lic co n tro l sim ply seem ed the only way to go for Am ericans in the m iddle o f the 20th century — and not ju st for highw ays. These years w ould see a vast expansion o f public infra structure, for everything from rec reation to education. W hat explains this golden age o f infrastructure? R elative eco nom ic equality certainly played a prim e role. By the 1950s, the n atio n ’s original plutocracy had faded away. A mass m iddle class, the w orld’s first ever, had jum ped onto political center stage. M ost A m ericans in this new, m ore equal A m erica faced sim ilar problem s. Public solutions ju st seem ed com m on sense. Build the Interstate with public tax dollars? O perate the Interstate under pub lic control? O f course. Am ericans o f the m id-20th century could see no alternative. An alternative — we know to day in our much m ore unequal A m erica — does exist: Private in terests could control our public goods. We could have decided 60 years ago to lease out the Inter state to private com panies. If we had organized the Inter state along these lines, anyone w anting to ride the system would have been paying tribute all these years to private corporations. And the execs in those corporations would have becom e rich enough to corrupt our political system — and keep their m onopoly pow er secure. This scenario should all sound a bit fam iliar. In contem porary A m erica, w e’ve let private corpo rations determ ine who can access our data superhighw ay. That con trol has generated grand fortunes — and form idable political power. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has becom e a billionaire. His top lob byist used to sit on the Federal Communications Commission, the agency that has to decide whether to approve the C om cast m erger with Tim e W arner. The other fed eral body with a say in the m erger has a chief who helped grease the skids, as a corporate attorney, for C om cast’s 2011 takeover o f NBC Universal. Brian Roberts and his corpo rate counterparts have essentially created a giant w ealth extraction m achine,sucking on average over $150 a m onth per household for TV, phone, and Internet, a bundle that costs a French household in Paris much less than one-third that price. W hat’s the first step toward turning this situ atio n around? S to p the C o m ca st and T im e W arner merger. OtherWords columnist Sam Pizzigati is an Institute fo r Policy Studies associate fellow.