tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
 ·Hollis Hosting
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·Fairpoint Communic..
| reply to whocares
Re: This Program Deserves To Fail
said by whocares  :MAYBE someone can tell me, WHEN did watching a tv or even local channels BECOME A RIGHT that people in the USA have? That is not the right we are talking about, but I assume you know that and were making a rhetorical comment.
Might want to check out the 5th amendment. I've highlighted the relevant section.
quote:
Amendment 5 - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings. Ratified 12/15/1791.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
»www.usconstitution.net/const.html
/tom |
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Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01
| reply to whocares
said by whocares :Since when is it the taxpayers' responsibility to guarantee peoples' "right" to watch TV anyway? MAYBE someone can tell me, WHEN did watching a tv or even local channels BECOME A RIGHT that people in the USA have? watching or owning a tv is not a necessity item,(like food,water,rct) jazzy Government auctioned off spectrum, making private property effectively worthless. As a compensation, they are 'fixing' some of them, using the money earned from the sale to give converter boxes to users. |
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USF Victim
@comcast.net
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :.... snip ..., then the buyers of the spectrum should have run the coupon program themselves, or better yet, just give the money to the companies making the boxes so they could be sold for less to begin with, instead of going through this coupon crap. OMG, NO NO NO! The telcos bought most of the spectrum. They would have raped the public harder than the government. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to pnh102
Why? .. becuase THE PEOPLE own the frequency and it's about time the people actually get to share in the profits of a sale of something we all own.
FAR better to go into the people's hands when the guv forces many people's property obsolete at the stroke of a pen.
Besides, we all bitch about unfunded mandates, we finally get one that's funded and people bitch?
Damn if you do, damn if you don't eh?
By the way, your first line contradicts:
"Since when is it the taxpayers' responsibility to guarantee peoples' "right" to watch TV anyway?"
WE THE PEOPLE are not only the taxpayers, but we the people are also the government, and last I checked, OTA television IS a right to all people.
You also try to then justify your issue by saying it's a timing issue that if you haven't prepared by now then basically "screw you" then..
Your anger in this issue dominates your ability to be rational.
At some point, the government needs to stop consuming the people's resources. This is one program that is a good start. They used the money from the sales to fund this.. I think it's perfectly fine what they did in this case.
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20 | reply to pnh102
Oh cool! you're a comedian today too! lol
AT&T trusted to run a program that benefits the competition? hah! Seriously.. I am normally thinking the way you do.. but this one is way hard for me to support you on. |
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goalieskates
join:2004-09-12
Knoxville, TN
 ·Knology
·Comcast
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :Since when is it the taxpayers' responsibility to guarantee peoples' "right" to watch TV anyway? If people who watch TV care enough about the long-overdue DTV transition, they can go take care of this themselves. Since the taxpayers who were perfectly satisfied with tv as it was were forced to give up perfectly working sets. You mandate change, you make it possible.
The government made an enormous profit on this deal, it wasn't done out of kindness. And I doubt very much you care about "the taxpayers". |
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Titus Pullo
I came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26
·Embarq
| reply to tschmidt
said by tschmidt :Coupon program is not taxpayer funded. As part of the digital TV transition FCC auctioned UHF channels 52-69. Auction generated billions in revenue. To compensate people for making analog TV obsolete a small portion of this revenue is being used to fund the coupon program. You have evidently interjected mitigating fact into a topic worthy of hate speak.
Housekeeping has been alerted.
** Disregard the quoted message and continue berating your fellow human beings **
Thank you
-- |
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Titus Pullo
I came, I saw, I slept
join:2004-06-26 | reply to BinaryXtreme
I have a New Years Resolution for you.
Read. The. Linked. Article. Before. Posting. Drivel.
-- |
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disconnected
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to BinaryXtreme
said by BinaryXtreme :I totally agree. Isn't television entertainment? Why not government coupons for me to go to the movies and play miniature golf. Oh yes, bowling and golf certificates should be mandatory too. Not to mention that this is pretty clear. If you can't understand the conversion, let me give you some advice. 1. Turn off your television. 2. Unplug it from the wall. 3. Get a rubber mallet. 4. Start bashing yourself in the head with the mallet. That is your new free form of entertainment. Also, don't worry about any brain damage from the head blows because it really doesn't make a difference when one has no thought process to begin with. But don't you get it? Television is the primary means by which the government controls its subjects through big media propaganda. They can't afford to lose that segment of the population who watches TV, because they are the most impressionable and trusting of the government to do right in its infinite wisdom.  |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs:
| reply to fiberguy
Well it sounds like a great idea to me. We give AT&T the $80 per household. Let AT&T run the program, selling the boxes for the $9.99 difference in price between the "coupon" and the retail price. Then they can tack on a "box service fee", a "digital transition recovery fee", and a "paper billing fee", along with some taxes and a USF fee, bringing the customer's total back up to $49.99.
They can then use the surplus of funds to buy the next FCC head and commissioners the way they have with Martin, ensuring "consumer friendly" regulation for years to come.
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Intel Q6600 @3400Mhz/GA-EP35-DS3P/2x 2048Mb G.Skill/Seagate 750.10/EVGA 8800GT's SLI/Silverstone 850W/Custom water cooler |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN | reply to ropeguru
Says the person not on a fixed income...which is really what the program was suppose to help with. |
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Juke Box
Free From Marketing
Premium
join:2001-01-29
Bar & Grill
·Comcast
| It has nothing to do with fixed income or not. It has to do with the goberment wanting to to take all the analogue signals for their selves. The point is that every American that watches tv or not will have to switch. Period.
--
If you are having half as much fun as I am, then I must be having twice the fun than you are. Do The Math! |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :Since when is it the taxpayers' responsibility to guarantee peoples' "right" to watch TV anyway? If people who watch TV care enough about the long-overdue DTV transition, they can go take care of this themselves. the cellphone companies should be funding this because they're what this move to digital is all about.
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When I gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more new yonooz tonigh molinigh - Ken Lee |
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tschmidt
Premium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Hollis Hosting
·Verizon Online DSL
·Fairpoint Communic..
| said by dvd536 : the cellphone companies should be funding this because they're what this move to digital is all about. Indirectly they are. Where do you think coupon program money is coming from? It is about 10% of spectrum auction proceeds.
/tom |
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RR Conductor
RailRoadDude
Premium
join:2002-04-02
Redwood Valley, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to pnh102
said by pnh102 :Since when is it the taxpayers' responsibility to guarantee peoples' "right" to watch TV anyway? If people who watch TV care enough about the long-overdue DTV transition, they can go take care of this themselves. Man, you should move to Somalia, where they have no pesky government programs to annoy, of course, you'll have to deal with being shot at, starved and other nice things.
--
»www.amtrak.com
»www.amtrakcalifornia.com
»www.metrolinktrains.com
»www.narprail.org
»www.freightrailworks.org
»www.up.com
»www.bnsf.com
»www.northcoastrailroad.org
»www.sonomamarintrain.org |
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BinaryXtreme
join:2004-04-20
Sparks, NV | reply to disconnected
So true. |
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BinaryXtreme
join:2004-04-20
Sparks, NV | reply to Titus Pullo
That's why this is posted. The problem is either you don't know how or just regret to see who I responded to so stop your drivel. |
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ropeguru
Premium
join:2001-01-25
Bridgeport, WV
clubs: | reply to cdru
Then it should have denied all those people not on fixed incomes the coupons. |
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cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN
1 edit | reply to Juke Box
said by Juke Box :It has to do with the goberment wanting to to take all the analogue signals for their selves. First of all, it's there analog bandwidth to begin with ultimately. And if they were taking it for themselves, why would they auction it back off, to others? A better technology came about (DTV) and they are making use of it. Without them doing this, the analog spectrum would continued to be use forever as there would be no incentive for stations to switch.
The point is that every American that watches tv or not will have to switch. Period. Well, if they don't watch TV, they don't exactly have anything to switch.
And for the ones that do... Cable TV and Satellite have 65m customers. Dish Network has about 13.7m and DirecTV right around 20m. So that makes about 98.7m subscribers out of approximiately 112m households or 88%. Those subscribers would NOT need converter boxes unless they had a TV that was not hooked up.
I'm not saying that you can only benefit from the program if you are on fixed income. My reply was to the post by ropeguru that says that if people can't afford a $49 STB that they need to be out working and not sitting around watching TV.
I'm not going to have sympathy for some DINK that is bitching and complaining that he isn't getting his $50 discount on his home entertainment center's 5th tuner. But for the elderly widow that is barely scraping by on a monthly social security check and would need to decide between food, medicines, or a $50 cable box, that is what I beleive this program really should have been for. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| reply to goalieskates
said by goalieskates :Since the taxpayers who were perfectly satisfied with tv as it was were forced to give up perfectly working sets. You mandate change, you make it possible. Oh poo. Technology changes. On another thread, it is being claimed that AT&T is dumping part of its EDGE service in favor of 3G. Should the government (or AT&T for that matter) be required to subsidize new 3G phones for the affected users?
What about when we dumped AMPS last year? Why was there no massive government coupon program to get the last of the AMPS users to newer cell phones?
If TV is that important to someone, they will upgrade, on their own. If you can afford to own a TV, you can afford to pay the full price of a converter box.
I also take this angle, as pointed out on The Simpsons awhile back: "TV Networks give you thousands of hours of entertainment for free, what do they owe you?"
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Blagojevich / Madoff 2012! |
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