New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | November 8, 2005

After years of pounding on his rabbit-ears TV to try and get better reception, Julian Sanchez thinks, hey, why shouldn't the government be paying to fix this non-problem?

Comments

|11.8.05 @ 4:22PM|#

Whenever a blog thread comes up involving Congress doing things that seem to fall far outside its enumerated powers, and people gloss over them by referring to the preamble's reference to "promoting the general welfare," I ask whether it would be OK for Congress to buy an HDTV for everyone in the U.S.

I'm always told by at least one person not to bring up ludicrous hypotheticals.

Well, IN YOUR FACE, SPACE COYOTE!

|11.8.05 @ 4:23PM|#

"Why shouldn't the government be paying to fix this non-problem?"

I'm confused.

|11.8.05 @ 4:27PM|#

The Real Bill,

I think Tim Cavanaugh's thought bubble in reference to Julian was posed as a sort of "devil's advocate" question...meaning exactly the opposite of what he said.

|11.8.05 @ 4:28PM|#

Where clicking on the link gives you the answer as to why the government shouldn't be paying.

|11.8.05 @ 4:38PM|#

Oh.

Thanks, smacky.

I did RTFA, but the irony of the post was lost on me. (I must have become to serious after reading the abortion thread.)

|11.8.05 @ 4:39PM|#

s/b ...too serious...

|11.8.05 @ 4:39PM|#

Julian depresses me, although for different reasons than he depresses smacky :p

|11.8.05 @ 4:47PM|#

Julian depresses me, although for different reasons than he depresses smacky :p



metalgrid,

Ok, I know I'm probably walking into a trap here, but....what are you talking about? I wasn't aware that Julian depressed me. Please elaborate.

|11.8.05 @ 4:49PM|#

I just want to go on record as saying that I had nothing to do with the imminent postulating re: smacky and Julian.

|11.8.05 @ 4:53PM|#

I'm curious too, metalgrid.

|11.8.05 @ 4:54PM|#

mediageek,

Oh really? That's funny because a moment ago I was just drawing the conclusion that metalgrid is one of your aliases.

|11.8.05 @ 4:56PM|#

It's not very nice of Julian to go around depressing people like he does. Shame on him.

So what's he doing, anyway?

|11.8.05 @ 5:02PM|#

Nah. Metalgrid is far too cool of a name for me to have come up with on my own.

But if I did, maybe it just means...er...something?

/late afternoon, lamenting that they did away with naptime after Kindergarten.

|11.8.05 @ 6:38PM|#

I know this isn't very libertarian but I'm of the opinion that auctioning off the spectrum (making it privately held) is a poor idea. Granted the way things are currently done is much worse, but I think treating it like a free public good (say the air) would be a much better idea.

Specifically just set up most of the spectrum with some loose rules, such as from xHz - yHz the maximum power broadcast is z. Then let people figure out how to use it best. That plus dissalowing malicious use should be sufficient.

|11.8.05 @ 7:59PM|#

Phil:

I've had that bit of the preamble thrown in my face twice already. But I thought it futile to point out that it's not actually part of the Articles themselves, which actually hold the power of law. People like that don't let inconvenient facts get in the way.

|11.8.05 @ 9:33PM|#

Drew - frankly, my idea of privatizing the airwaves would be along those lines. The more advanced radio technology gets, the more broadcasters can fit on a dial in any given area.

|11.8.05 @ 10:01PM|#

What happens to portable, battery-operated TVs and radios with TV-band audio reception after the Command Economy shuts off analog broadcasts? Are we supposed to connect $50 converter boxes to them? Where would we plug in the converters during a power outage? The frequencies coveted by cellphone, pager and Public Safety are those above UHF TV Channel 51. In much of the U.S. any broacaster operating in that band could relocate to an unused TV channel - no analog shutoff required. The consumer would spared the opportunity costs associated with conversion to digital.

|11.8.05 @ 10:29PM|#

�nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.�

The feds are taking away the functionality of our TV sets. I'll take one government issued HDTV tuner as compensation.

I do have some misgivings, though. I heard the government will be able to use these tuners to watch what's happening in our living rooms. Oh yeah, right, like the box has to point towards the viewer and were supposed to believe this is so the remote works properly.

Larry A|11.8.05 @ 10:53PM|#

Actually providing reliable TV service to each household is a government responsibility. Once McCain-Feingold III goes into effect and shuts down the Internet, and all the newspapers go belly-up, TV will be the only available medium for Congressional campaign messages.

|11.9.05 @ 9:43AM|#

Thanks Larry. I was upset about this, but now I feel so much better :)