In the 90s, the Clinton administration wanted everyone in America to have high-speed internet through fiber optics. The idea was to be the next superhighway project. Telecom companies all claimed they’d do it but they needed an incentive. So, the government gave them incentives in big tax write-offs and deregulation. Once the telecom companies got their tax breaks, they changed their minds and didn’t do any of it. Instead, they went for a cheaper ADSL model, which was largely inferior, and charged a ton for it. We still don’t have the fiber optics network and the tax breaks resulted in $400 billion lost.