A Free Market If You Can Keep It, w/ FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai

0:03 tonight we’re here to celebrate with the community of Wichita opportunities for parents and students and teachers to talk about freedom I talked about the importance of reducing regulations and mandates that inhibit the ability for people in

0:23 society to really fully experience the opportunities that are given to us by the Declaration of Independence the Constitution and the Bill of Rights this event featuring FCC Commissioner a Jeep I is about engagement it’s about engaging kids students who are studying these ideas about what a marketplace of ideas really means you know for young

0:44 people the Internet has become something like a fish swimming in water or they don’t even know what has made that thing possible but you take a step back and you recognize that there’s a whole underlying infrastructure the rule of law a lot of things that have to come together to make that thing that we all take for granted possible that’s what we’re doing as part of this side this

1:05 program in conjunction with the Fred and Mary koch foundation they contacted me as a student that’s close to the wichita area and asked me if i would accept the honor of introducing a jeep I and I accepted obviously that’s why I’m here free speech i think is omnipotent among students we all love our free speech

1:27 that’s one of our favorite rights to talk about I came to this event to learn more about how to debate I like to are you and I would like to turn it more into something that would be helpful to the community and they were talking about regulating the internet and I think that’s a really cool subject to learn about as always the internet is kind of

1:49 an iffy thing and you know sometimes it can get out of control if the government steps in too far doesn’t do enough or just does a right amount we should still know about it you know everyone should know about it in this country and I think it’s a big deal this is an interesting topic that the way you sure to pay attention about it to know what our country doing I’m interesting about

2:09 something that’s coming regularly the internet or not and something about videos right anything anything is funny because to all the things is quite different with China market is a very very fantastic country that’s everything school people its kind you could show the lessons in the school like that I tend to want to be wise stewards of the

2:30 taxpayers dollars and that’s ultimately you the bottom line for any public servant I’m Commissioner pie has been a staunch opponent of net neutrality I’ve never heard anybody tell me do they have an ISP that’s brought to their access to content what they do tell me want faster internet speeds they want better prices they want more choices and short they want the benefits of

2:50 competition the free market works in a powerful way when the government steps back and lets consumers tell corporations what it is that they want three dollar we spend maintaining that copper line that nobody hardly anybody uses is a dollar that can’t be spent on fiber and so one of the first things I propose when I became a commissioner was let’s modernize our rules let’s make sure that every American has the ability

3:13 to see fiber late to the doorstep of his or her home but there are a lot of entrenched interests that simply don’t want to do that one of the reasons why it’s great to be here at the Bill of Rights Institute is in part because I grew up in a small town in Kansas and it’s always great to be home the other reason is that I had a chance to talk about my views on the importance of the Internet to innovation to

3:33 entrepreneurship to digital opportunity and that’s something that I think the students hopefully found interesting since they increasingly rely on technology in their everyday lives I want to thank that the Bill of Rights Institute r amend ously for the invitation to come deliver this annual lecture one of the things that I have been very impressed by is the fact that they are continue to advocate for the

3:54 the freedom to pursue one’s own dreams the rights to life liberty pursuit of happiness are so fundamental to how this country was built and how has thrived and they were carrying those values into the digital age and that’s something that’s so critical for policymakers and regulators in Washington DC as well as students who are the next generation of leaders I’d like to thank the Bill of Rights Institute for hosting this

4:15 special occasion Thank You bit of rice hosting the event thank you I’m really grateful for the reference and it’s been a privilege to be able to work with them