Paul, while I generally agree with your approach, there’s one problem here: the government is already in the cable business. To wit: I don’t like my cable provider one iota. Can I get another one? Nope.
Oh, but I can get satellite, right? That’s not so easy. It so turns out that from my house, I cannot, unless I were to convince my neighbor to cut down a swath of trees on his property. That would entail costs on my end that are frankly prohibitive.
I also have problems with being unable to select cable stations a la carte. When I want to “channel-surf,” I’d prefer not even a fleeting glimpse of that freakish prune-face hawking “sex toys” or whatever on Oxygen, watch celebrities being pestered by paparazzi for E! network, hear the whiny, tongue-pierced teens on MTV complaining about how they don’t resemble Britney Spears enough, ad nauseam…
Let’s get the market back into cable TV, Paul ? because apparently there is a desire for choosing networks a la carte. Meanwhile, this governmentally protected monopoly is imposing things upon people they don’t want and wouldn’t choose otherwise.
To make an analogy, if the government allowed only one steak restaurant per area, and it were run as cable companies are, then if you wanted to buy a sirloin, you would have to accept a side order of steamed cabbage whether you like the stuff or think it smells ? but if you ordered a filet mignon, you would have to accept the steamed cabbage and the basket of dirty diapers. Nobody would order the diapers a la carte, but hey, if you don’t want them, just ignore them. Right?
You can put the diapers under the table and never have to see them, but the thought of having them around in the first place is disgusting. Or you can go home and grill your own steak (which doesn’t work as well when it’s rainy). Frankly, it’d be a whole lot nicer if the government didn’t put you in that position in the first place. You want steak at a restaurant, so the market should let you have steak. Your choice shouldn’t be either no steak or steak and the smelly stuff.
