2006 heralds a new round of tax cuts for the wealthy. Budget cuts are devastating our libraries. (You know, those fanastic repositories of information, learning, and culture.) Yet the federal government is going to spend $1.5 billion to make sure people having working televisions come 2009 when we (finally) go digital so every American can continue to go stupid.
The difficulty, of course, is that the analog broadcast system will then be shut down -- which will leave most of today's TV sets unable to receive a signal over the air.
Roughly 20 million of those soon-to-be-obsolete sets are in homes where people don't subscribe to cable or satellite. The other 50 million or so are in pay TV homes, and used as second, third or fourth sets. Sets hooked up to cable or satellite services should work fine no matter what.
To avoid a consumer revolt, Congress has set aside about $1.5 billion to smooth the transition. Owners of outmoded TV sets will be eligible for two vouchers, worth $40 each, to help buy converter boxes that will enable today's analog TV sets to receive digital signals.
Yes, the very same federal government that is cutting back on college loans and food stamps will soon be issuing TV vouchers.
You know what, your radios will still work fine after the conversion. And, if you can work around their hours, libraries will still be offering (gasp!) books to read.
2 comments:
Why watch broadcast TV? If the government wants the masses to do something, it is best to be suspicious. It is understandable that the US Government doesn't appreciate libraries. If people supported and used their libraries, they would be able to use at very low cost, what costs (CDs, DVDs, books)hundreds of dollars per year to purchase. The corporations would miss that revenue and the government would miss the tax revenue.
Yeah, there's a whole lotta money at stake here.
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