We take what they give us...but we don't like it
I went to the grocery store the other day to buy my monthly supply of food & drinks and found out that they had changed the way they sell them. If I wanted ANYTHING I had to pay up front $100 and take 100 different items of their choosing even though I only wanted 20 of them. The other 80 items I hated and these went immediately into the garbage. So, I'd wasted 80% of my money on trash I didn't use. Also, and unfortunately, there were several items left off the list offered for $100, but they told me if I paid another $10 I could have a few of them (in addition to a bunch of other trash items that would also go into the garbage). Begrudgingly I paid the extra money because I really wanted these essentials. So, I took home my load of groceries & trash items $110 poorer. I didn't like it, but I accepted it, since this was how the grocery store was now forcing people to buy their stuff.
This story sounds unbelievable, huh? Who would be willing to let any grocery store in America do this to them? Well, actually, it happens every day. And we do accept it like idiots. Though it's not actually groceries I'm talking about. It's television.
The cable companies have been doing this very thing to us for decades. We buy predetermined 'packages' of programming for a set amount of money that have lets say for arguments sake 100 channels included in them. Of these 100 channels we tend to watch only 10% to 20% of them. So we're basically wasting up to 80% of our money on unwatched channels. Yet we have no say so on this and our only options are to either take what they give us or switch to some other television provider. Unfortunately the other providers do the same thing, so there's no escaping this insanity. And if some channel we want is not included we have to pay more to get a bigger 'package' in which it is included. The whole concept is illogical and insulting for the customers. It's like we're forced to buy stuff that we're just going to throw away instead of being able to buy only what we want.
I'm sure that the cable companies have their motives for doing this. Obviously money is the prime motivator I'd suspect. Even though technically they have no monopoly on us, since there are multiple companies involved, their systems are all the same--so they have monopolized the system. What power do we have to change this?
I'm willing to bet that if you asked 100 people about this a great majority would say that they wish they could choose to only have the channels that they actually watch broadcast into their homes and that they would like to only pay for the tv channels that they actually watched. Why would anyone want to pay for something they didn't use? I don't.
Cable television is the only utility I know of that does this. Power, gas, phone, water, Internet, etc. are all paid for by what we actually use. The Internet is similar to tv, in that you are given access to much more content that you'll actually use, but you're not really paying for the content--you're paying for band speed. Power, gas, water & phone charge us exactly by what we use, nothing more. WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THIS ON TV?
I have no idea why everyone is so accepting of what the cable companies are doing. Maybe we've been brain washed into thinking we have no alternative. Maybe people have tried to do something about it, but gotten nowhere. I don't know the answer to these questions. All I know is that the situation is illogical and stupid and since I hate things that are illogical and stupid I have to point out my objections.
So wake up America to this absurdity. Stop buying tv that you just throw into the garbage. Make the cable companies change their programming systems so that we only pay for what we want to watch. When this is accomplished our world will be a better place and everyone will be a lot happier.
This story sounds unbelievable, huh? Who would be willing to let any grocery store in America do this to them? Well, actually, it happens every day. And we do accept it like idiots. Though it's not actually groceries I'm talking about. It's television.
The cable companies have been doing this very thing to us for decades. We buy predetermined 'packages' of programming for a set amount of money that have lets say for arguments sake 100 channels included in them. Of these 100 channels we tend to watch only 10% to 20% of them. So we're basically wasting up to 80% of our money on unwatched channels. Yet we have no say so on this and our only options are to either take what they give us or switch to some other television provider. Unfortunately the other providers do the same thing, so there's no escaping this insanity. And if some channel we want is not included we have to pay more to get a bigger 'package' in which it is included. The whole concept is illogical and insulting for the customers. It's like we're forced to buy stuff that we're just going to throw away instead of being able to buy only what we want.
I'm sure that the cable companies have their motives for doing this. Obviously money is the prime motivator I'd suspect. Even though technically they have no monopoly on us, since there are multiple companies involved, their systems are all the same--so they have monopolized the system. What power do we have to change this?
I'm willing to bet that if you asked 100 people about this a great majority would say that they wish they could choose to only have the channels that they actually watch broadcast into their homes and that they would like to only pay for the tv channels that they actually watched. Why would anyone want to pay for something they didn't use? I don't.
Cable television is the only utility I know of that does this. Power, gas, phone, water, Internet, etc. are all paid for by what we actually use. The Internet is similar to tv, in that you are given access to much more content that you'll actually use, but you're not really paying for the content--you're paying for band speed. Power, gas, water & phone charge us exactly by what we use, nothing more. WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THIS ON TV?
I have no idea why everyone is so accepting of what the cable companies are doing. Maybe we've been brain washed into thinking we have no alternative. Maybe people have tried to do something about it, but gotten nowhere. I don't know the answer to these questions. All I know is that the situation is illogical and stupid and since I hate things that are illogical and stupid I have to point out my objections.
So wake up America to this absurdity. Stop buying tv that you just throw into the garbage. Make the cable companies change their programming systems so that we only pay for what we want to watch. When this is accomplished our world will be a better place and everyone will be a lot happier.
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