I may not defend my neighbor's television habits, but I defend to the death his right to watch it

Filed in archive IPTV on December 8, 2005

There is no need to come up with additional puns or insights. Click on the link to read the entire article, but here are the best excerpts.

(excerpts from George Will's article 'The Inalienable Right to a Remote')

Feeling flush with (other people's) cash, the Senate has concocted a novel way to spend $3 billion: create a new entitlement. The Senate has passed -- and so has the House, with differences -- an entitlement to digital television.

If this ... becomes law, everyone who owns old analog television sets ... will get subsidies to pay for making those sets capable of receiving digital signals.

... this story illustrates the timeless truth that no matter how deeply you distrust the government's judgment, you are too trusting

Why is this a crisis? Because ... by April 2009 broadcasters must end analog transmissions and the government will have auctioned the analog frequencies for various telecommunications purposes. For the vast majority of Americans, April 2009 will mean . . . absolutely nothing. Nationwide, 85 percent of all television households (and 63 percent of households below the poverty line) already have cable or satellite service.

.. Today a digital-capable set with a flat-screen display can be purchased from -- liberals, please pardon the mention of your Great Satan -- Wal-Mart for less than $460. But compassionate conservatism has a government response to the crisis ...

... The $990 million House version of this entitlement -- call it No Couch Potato Left Behind -- is (relatively) parsimonious: Consumers would get vouchers worth only $40 and would be restricted to a measly two vouchers per household. The Senate's more spacious entitlement would pay for most of the cost -- $50 to $60 -- of the converter boxes. But there is Republican rigor in this: Consumers would be required to pay $10. That is the conservatism in compassionate conservatism.

... defenders of this entitlement argue that taxpayers will not be burdened by its costs because the government's sale of the analog frequencies will yield perhaps $10 billion.

Think about that: Because the government may get $10 billion from one transaction, taxpayers are unburdened by government's giving away $3 billion with another transaction...

Simply amazing. Maybe we can get Congress to underwrite VOD content next!