As Congress decides what it wants to do about the telecom industry, we here at Telecom and CRM Blog warn them not to protect obsolete industries out of short-term thinking.
James Carlini’s great article on the historical dangers of protecting obsolete industries gives a sobering lesson from history:
"Restricting options and closing down innovation in order to protect obsolete infrastructures and business models is as dangerous as demanding rickety bridges to be kept open because of their quaint reflection of the past.
"A better comparison (and one that really happened) is the last big infrastructure issue facing Chicago and St. Louis back in the late 1800s after the Civil War. See below:
"At that time, Illinois and Chicago were open to innovation and welcomed the railroad growth. St. Louis put legislative obstacles in the way in order to stifle progress and protect the waterway businesses. It was bad government decisions and protectionism at their worst. St. Louis could have easily become the national hub instead of Chicago.
"As they say, the rest is history. Chicago became the Midwest powerhouse in economic development fueled by the new railroad infrastructure and grew in population while St. Louis fell into tertiary status because its growth was stagnated by shortsighted
politicians."
Read and heed.
Leave a comment