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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs
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To: PROLIFE who wrote (14337)3/9/2008 7:17:31 PM
From: Peter Dierks  Read Replies (2) of 71588
 
Couch Potato Entitlement
March 8, 2008; Page A8

Among its other achievements, Congress has recently made every teenager in America deliriously happy. It made television a universal entitlement. Specifically, digital TV, with a pricetag for this new taxpayer subsidy of up to $1.5 billion.

Federal law requires that, following the Super Bowl on February 17, 2009, all TV broadcasts will be transmitted only in digital format. Viewers relying solely on "over the air" analog programming will lose their signal. The Commerce Department believes there are some 35 million TV sets in America that don't have a digital converter, and their owners (read: voters) might not be happy to have their sets go black.

So in 2005 Congress authorized the TV Converter Box Coupon Program. Any family can get a $40 coupon -- or two -- to convert its analog TVs to digital. (This is separate from the economic "stimulus" package.) Six million Americans have already snatched up coupons, and Commerce is even underwriting a PR program so Americans will grab them.

Technological change routinely makes consumer items obsolete, but the feds don't pay people to upgrade their computers, microwaves, or home heating systems (not yet at least). Uncle Sam didn't provide coupons so people could exchange their record turntables for CD players. For several years now all new TVs have been sold with digital capability and consumers have had ample time to adjust.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says digital TV will "improve our quality of life" and "we want every American to be ready." Consumer Reports finds that the average American family has 2.6 TV sets, and the typical American adult now spends an average of four hours a day watching those TVs. Just what America needs: a taxpayer incentive to spend even more time on the couch.

online.wsj.com
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