Unbelievable.
Gotta keep the people under the spell, ya know? Don’t want to give them time to think.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yes, that RIGHT to properly receive digital television signals is prominently featured in the Constitution, just beneath the paragraph concerning the RIGHT to a free Power Chair.....
They give my money away every day.
Wow. Free! Let’s do it!
What a waste of your and my money. Obviously our “government” has no idea of what it means to let the free market do what it will.
I don’t see any 8-tracks or Betamax around. Silver halide based photography is almost dead. The government didn’t give people coupons or any other subsidies for those things. It didn’t interfere with the free market.
Very few people are affected by this entirely. Many people have one or 2 old TV’s that might not work anymore, but guess what? That would be the case if the TV’s just decided to break, which old TV’s do anyway, and the cost of repair or a new television is no worse than what these converters cost anyway. Saying this is something the government must do is like saying they must subsidise the repair/replacement of your TV if it just straight breaks and quits working.
I don’t know what the big deal is. The Federal Government is reclaiming a large swath of spectrum and reselling it for billions and billions of dollars. They want to spend a few million trying to make it a zero-impact change to as many people as possible. And people are freaking out about it?
I’d rather have the $40. How many people don’t have cable or satellite?
Thanks for the info. I e-mailed it to friends and family.
Puh-leeze. That's practically ALL it does. And in a few decades, that's all it will be doing period.
gimme gimme gimmme gimme gimme gimme
Bread and circuses. They have to keep the welfare gang zoned out in front of the TV.
$40 bucks? We all pay for it.
Mark
Considering how many articles have been already posted about this you’d think people would read up before they posted.
What they are giving is a coupon which will be good for about 1/2 off the purchase of a converter box (digital tuner).
No, there isn’t a “right” to a converter box, but considering they are fixing something that ain’t broke and forcing an upgrade, I don’t see a problem with them using money they’ll get from auctioned frequencies to pay for the coupons.
Well, I am one of those who will need one of these gizmos in order to watch TV. I have no way of buying a new TV or even of buying one of these converter boxes.
On top of that, there is no way I am going to apply for anything from the government if I can help it. There *will* be strings attached, all kinds of them.
They’ve already told me I don’t qualify for any help at all for any of the problems I have, in spite of having done everything I was supposed to for many, many years.
I don’t know how many FReepers have had to beg others for mercy or for their lives in the past few weeks, months, years - but I’m sick to death of it.
“But if you’re an American citizen you are entitled to: a heated kidney-shaped pool, a microwave oven — don’t watch the food cook, a Dyna-Gym — I’ll personally demonstrate it in the privacy of your own home, a king-size Titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum, a foolproof plan and an airtight alibi, real simulated Indian jewellery, a Gucci shoetree, a year’s supply of antibiotics, a personally autographed picture of Randy Mantooth and Bob Dylan’s new unlisted phone number, a beautifully restored Third Reich swizzle stick, Rosemary’s baby, a dream date in kneepads with Paul Williams, a new Matador, a new mastodon, a Maverick, a Mustang, a Montego, a Merc Montclair, a Mark IV, a meteor, a Mercedes, an MG, or a Malibu, a Mort Moriarty, a Maserati, a Mac truck, a Mazda, a new Monza, or a moped, a Winnebago — Hell, a herd of Winnebagos — we’re giving ‘em away, or how about a McCulloch chainsaw, a Las Vegas wedding, a Mexican divorce, a solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot, or a baby’s arm holding an apple?”
-Tubes.
Now add digital television converter.