BobR wrote:
On Jan 30, 8:37 am, " wrote:
On Jan 30, 9:31 am, "HeyBub" wrote:
Again.
"[Jan 29th] For the second time, the Senate unanimously passed a
bill Thursday night to delay the transition to digital television
by four months in order to give consumers more time to get ready. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...09/01/29/AR200...
it wil be passed by house too.
And it will need to be passed yet again as the delay will only serve
to give those who have been stupid and ignored the deadline will do
exactly the same again and again. There will always be a large
percentage who will wait until after the event to do anything and will
then whine about how they didn't know. Ignorance and procrastination
should not be rewarded.
Not entirely. Like most government programs, the switchover scheme had the
seeds of its destruction built-in by clueless politicians.
Here's the original plan and how it's worked out:
1. Issue coupons to recompense people who, through no fault of their own,
would otherwise have to spend precious money.
2. Issue the coupons with an expiration date (!).
3. Not enough convertor boxes were available to meet the initial demand.
4. An unknown, but probably large, number of coupons expired.
5. Government can't issue more coupons because they might be out of money
(they won't know until all the redeemed coupons get back to them). There's
no way to know how many coupons expired before they could be redeemed.
I know two people who are just the opposite of procrastinators; they applied
for their coupons immediately after the program started. They got their
coupons, but there were no convertor boxes to be had for love or money*. The
coupons expired before their local stores got sufficient stock.
My neighbors re-applied**, but there's a 2 million coupon backlog while the
agency awaits more funding from Congress.
Why-oh-why Congress just doesn't say "Ignore the coupon expiration dates,"
is beyond comprehension.
--------
* Not exactly true: There was one store offering boxes for $80 or $40 +
coupon.
** They don't know whether re-applying will work. They may have been
permanently barred from getting replacement coupons, else what would prevent
people from getting FOUR coupons?
Maybe there's a form to fill out or something.