When hearing the term “Corporate Subsidies”, you might automatically think I would be speaking of the kind like the U.S. sugar industry gets to protect the price of sugar from cheap imports or the kind corn farmers may get for corn and methanol production. But if we were making methanol from sugar cane that is 3 times more efficient, this subside would not be needed and food prices would be lower, because candy, pop as everything food is sweetened with corn syrup (please see Energy Policy Act of 2005). No I am not going to talk about these kind.
I can’t think of an American taxpayer who does likes them except those receiving the subsidies! No I am talking about the ones your taxes are paying for and is not some unknown like the above mentioned subsidies for farmers or price supports.
If you want to believe in the free market unregulated system like they are always telling us, lets start with Cable TV.
What cable is subsidized? Not exactly and not by the Government. You are subsidizing channels by paying higher than needed prices to have channels you want or so the cable company says when it comes time to raise prices on customers. If nobody would pay for these straight-up, why have them? Just so you can say we have a gazillion channels? What good are they if nobody would pay to watch them?
We all know its a way to force profits. Cable Co’s hold the Discovery channel or Disney over are heads and tell us we will lose them if I don’t pay high prices for the half dozen channels we watch. Believe me when I say that the technology has been there to pay for only channels you want to watch. The Cable Co’s own much of the content now by the mergers and acquisitions of the movie makers in the last 15 years and are skewing the price triers to force you to buy content they own. Not to be outdone by the internet, they now have landmark court decision that now allows them to slow or stop media content delivery on the Internet. The Internet is their next competitor that they can not buy or merge with but do have control of more than 70% of high speed Internet distribution that makes movie content possible via the Internet. But don’t try to watch to many movies that way or you may find yourself with a surcharge or discontinued or slow service. So what is unlimited if there is a limit? See also Comcast / NBC Universal Studios Merger. This is paid for by your subside of channels you never watch to buy more content you will pay through the nose for.
You would not buy a car if they made you take a $1000 worth of cheap toasters and microwaves with it would you? I don’t know, maybe you need a toaster! Nor would you find it acceptable to be surcharged if you mange to make your car get better than average gas mileage.
Now let’s take cell phones. A bit more complicated, these plans are still no different. Start with the latest phone released, add a high price that many would not pay to have the phone, subsidize the price with a 2 year contract (so you can’t switch carriers when you find out you are not getting the voice or data service you are paying for, add a “early termination fee” (ETF) of $350 in the case you really need to get off the carrier to have any service coupled with the idea your phone is married to the carrier or will not physically work with anyone else so you will also need to buy a new phone to switch.
This forces you into the same subsidized cell phone with a new carrier after paying the ETF from the last carrier. I only hope the service is better!
It took over 2 years to get the promised “3G” service in my area and by then, they were promising “4G”, so what did we get? probably some other areas 3G equipment that converted to 4G. I can guess I should be able to advertise and sell a product that you are bound to and I do not have to deliver until enough folks pay for it in bad service and high fees. Is that not subsidizing the current undelivered technology? Gee, I want to sell you a car that runs on water ! Price $200,000 I will not deliver until I make one that runs on air! If you jump off my ever changing delivery schedule, it will cost you $350,000
It is no wonder 7 other nations have much better cell phone system in voice and data with good competition and lower cost while delivering more. What? you thought the U.S. was on top of the cell phone industry? you don’t know what you have been missing because nobody here is providing it.
I could site many more of these given the time and space but let it be food for thought the next time someone in congress starts taking regulation to these unregulated and out of control companies that may very well own all the content and delivery means by the time they speak of it. To Big To Fail? What would you do without AT&T, Verizon or Comcast, Time Warner in Your Area. You have little or no choice.