Comcast and AT&T aren't the middle-man. They build a necessary part of the infrastructure necessary to get content to the consumer. They're no more the middle-man than FedEx or UPS. Companies like Netflix, etc, are the middle-men: selling other peoples' content over other peoples' wires.
Vis-a-vis roads: the public pays for the roads, while the cable networks have been almost entirely built with private money. Transportation is also a good example of why you probably don't want publicly-funded telecom networks. Older suburbanites vote, younger people don't. That means we have tons of highways out to the suburbs, and decrepit public transportation.
My parents switched from FIOS back to DISH because they missed their low-res Indian channels. They'll be the people voting to decide how much public money to allocate to broadband. Will you be happy with their decision? Especially now that states and cities are out of money? When push comes to shove and it's shoring-up public pensions versus building broadband, where will the money go?
Vis-a-vis roads: the public pays for the roads, while the cable networks have been almost entirely built with private money. Transportation is also a good example of why you probably don't want publicly-funded telecom networks. Older suburbanites vote, younger people don't. That means we have tons of highways out to the suburbs, and decrepit public transportation.
My parents switched from FIOS back to DISH because they missed their low-res Indian channels. They'll be the people voting to decide how much public money to allocate to broadband. Will you be happy with their decision? Especially now that states and cities are out of money? When push comes to shove and it's shoring-up public pensions versus building broadband, where will the money go?