Nathan Scandella (personal)

Digital TV Delay is a 0x00000000

The digital TV transition that we've been hearing about for years just got pushed back another 4 months. This is stupid. There are only rarely situations when we get a chance to take an unambiguous step forward. A chance to do something that's just plain better, where almost everybody can win. Digital TV is one of those things.

Digital TV will provide more channels, better picture, more capabilities, and use less bandwidth, compared with the antiquated analog standard. And yet, we're pushing the transition back, costing ourselves a bunch of money, pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Will there be a few people who are unprepared for the transition? Sure. But, there will be just as many people - and businesses - inconvenienced by the delay. What about people who did the right thing, and bought a new set just in time for the original February deadline? Those people could have waited another four months, and in this economy, invariably gotten a better deal on the same exact TV. They didn't procrastinate, but they get punished.

What about the people who were too late to get one of the $40 coupons, before they ran out? You know what? If you're so poor that you really need the $40 coupon, then you should have been one of the first people requesting them. It's like making a subway train in Manhattan (with lots of high-paid riders on it) wait 5 minutes because a couple of McDonalds' employees overslept, and will lose out on a half-hour's pay if they have to take the next train. That's supposed to be the benefit of low-wage labor. Their time isn't worth as much. Holding up a long-awaited digital TV transition for the people who can't afford a converter box is just ass-backwards, especially at a time when it's clear that our economy is going to fall well short of its potential output.

The people in this country who supposedly live below the "poverty line" have far more in the way of TV access than poor people anywhere else in the world. And if they can't even afford a $40 converter box every several decades, as technology advances, then maybe they should be spending a little less time watching TV, and more time putting food on their table (by way of some kind of J-O-B).

The poor in this country are massively subsidized by the rest of the nation. They get their health care paid for, at exorbitant rates, in hospital emergency rooms. They pay no income tax. Do we have to buy them TV equipment, too? Even if I concede that the $40 subsidy for everybody who needs it is a good idea, we can reimburse those folks who didn't get a coupon after the fact, and not require the entire nation to delay this transition for another four months. Sure, they have to put up the $40 up front, but again, if they can't even spot Uncle Sam $40 (which most of us do every single paycheck), then TV should be the last of their concerns.

It's gotten to where we don't seem to be able to do anything anymore. We can't hold the Iraqi government responsible for any milestones, we can't hold banks accountable for actually lending the money we give them (or even spending it responsibly), and we can't hold the head of the IRS (up a couple levels, actually) accountable for paying his taxes. Can we not even hold citizens accountable for having their TVs ready with months of warning?

C'mon people. Can't we?

Posted at 07:41PM Feb 07, 2009 by Nathan in Politics  |  Comments[0]