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Bill: Telephone Services Bill
Details
Submitted by[?]: Novy Smer Party
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: May 2115
Description[?]:
| Telephones are now an essential to modern life and so we need to ensure that all citizens will have access to this vital service. The poorest are often the most in need as they search for work and so we should subsidise the system for these users. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy concerning phone services.
Old value:: The state regulates the rates providers can charge for phone service.
Current: There are no regulations on phone service.
Proposed: The state subsidizes the phone service of low income families, and regulates the rates providers can charge for phone service.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 23:49:00, September 21, 2005 CET | From | Fenner Brockway Socialist Party | To | Debating the Telephone Services Bill |
| Message | We are not sure. Generally speaking, FBSP believes that welfare benefits should be monetary, rather than given in the form of service-specific subsidies. If welfare is given as a monetary sum, things are more efficient and more geared to the needs and choices of the individual poor person. For many essentials, we favour universal free or heavily subsidized access, but we are not sure whether we would place phones in this category. The existing law, regulating rates, already allows the state to require providers to charge low rates, and this existing law also allows the state to require providers to offer lower prices to poor customers; the difference is that such a subsidy would be given directly by the provider instead of by the state. However, we will listen to the arguments of the various parties. |
| Date | 23:58:14, September 21, 2005 CET | From |  Ducal Delegation | To | Debating the Telephone Services Bill |
| Message | His Grace does not understand why he should be expected to pay for peasants to natter away to each other. Percy Waterman (Personal Secretary to the Grand Duke of Hikirena) |
| Date | 14:33:44, September 22, 2005 CET | From | Novy Smer Party | To | Debating the Telephone Services Bill |
| Message | We see this as just a step in the direction of having telephone lines which will be free for all to use. |
| Date | 18:23:25, September 22, 2005 CET | From | Junker Party | To | Debating the Telephone Services Bill |
| Message | The telecommunicacions industry is completely private. For government to place themselves in a position in which it could provide almost free telecommunicacion resources to low income families would be regarded as a not so invisible hand, eliminated the tenents of capitalism within itself. Telecommunication industries provide certain deals for low income housing, and that should be enough, especially when the government does hand out welfare bonds. |
| Date | 20:28:38, September 22, 2005 CET | From | Fenner Brockway Socialist Party | To | Debating the Telephone Services Bill |
| Message | Given that the major phone companies typically make large profits, the government can use the existing regulation to force them, if necessary, to subsidize the lines of poorer customers. A direct government subsidy is unnecessary. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 53 | ||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 268 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: "Kubrk" is a Jelbic word that has the colloquial meaning "old man" or "geezer". |
| Random quote: "Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites." - William Ruckelshaus |