The Upcoming Analog-to-Digital TV Switchover

Dear Readers,

I read the article at the other end of this link http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE50E5DJ20090115 on the Drudge Report today and wanted to write a comment on the article, but they didn’t have a comment section, so I thought I would comment about it on Telemoonfa Time.

If you don’t want to read the article, or if the link has gone bad, (I’m a little worried about that- that someday all the links I put on this blog will be links to nowhere.) here’s my quick summary: Democrats in the House of Representatives want $650 million to continue the analog-to-digital switchover coupon thing. The Government has already given out a lot of coupons, but now they’re out of money and they need more money. (The analog-to-digital switchover thing is where the Techno-Powers-That-Be make your old TV automatically explode in February 2009, unless you buy a converter box, in case you haven’t heard.)

I guess the government felt responsible for making everybody either buy a new TV or buy a converter box, since the Government was responsible for the switchover, so they decided to give everybody a $40 coupon to make the converter box more affordable.

But I think that the whole idea to give the American people coupons for their converter boxes is dumb. Yeah. It’s dumb.

Last time I read the Constitution of the USA, I didn’t read anything about the right to watch TV. TV is a completely optional, unnecessary thing. If people want to watch it, they should have to pay for it. If their TV doesn’t work for some reason, they should either have to get it fixed or buy a new one if they want to watch TV at their house again. That’s the natural burden for owning and maintaining a TV, says I.

I mean, wouldn’t it be crazy if the government said to the American people, “My fellow Americans, the Nintendo Wii is coming out, and it doesn’t play the old Nintendo games, and I know a lot of Americans like to play their old Nintendo games, so we’re giving you coupons! Hooray! Coupons for everyone! Look, we have money! Play video games and prosper! Celebrate your country by taking this money and spending it on video games! Hooray!”

The bottom line is, the government ought not to spend another $650 million on those TV coupons.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa