Infrastructure that everyone uses. Roads, bridges, sewer and water treatment, electrical grid, etc. things like that.
Discussion
Everyone uses internet without a special internet tax to build out networks. Why can't other utilities function the same way?
That's a good point, the internet has reached a level of adoption where very few people don't have access to it. Yet people pay for it via for-profit isps. And oftentimes they do so at inflated prices with little to no upgrade in infrastructure. Isps are just milking us for all they can. Perhaps it's time that it is seen as a public utility, and treated as such.
The inflated prices are in places where the ISP has a regulated monopoly backed by state violence. Basically government with an extra step.
Why do so many American municipalities hate free markets?
Yeah but when it comes to ISPs most places are monopolies. Same with the power companies. If free market solutions could fix this problem, I would think it would have happened by now, there's no "big government" regulations preventing it. Don't get me wrong, I'd be perfectly fine with a free market solution. I'm just not holding my breath that it would work, or even be the most efficient path.
I think the information superhighway should be treated as just that, a public highway. Let businesses flourish on the infrastructure but maintain the infrastructure and such a way that it's equal for all.