"About a year and a half ago, my wife bought a flat screen TV. Now, through no fault of our own, we'll have to buy additional equipment to run the TV."
Jim,
As I understand it, if you have cable or satellite TV, you shouldn't need to buy anything else. If you get your signal over the air, you will need a TV with an ATSC tuner or a converter box. If you bought a TV without an ATSC tuner, you saved money versus buying a TV that had one. Now you just have to pay up. You probably saved $100+ back then and now only have to pay $50 or so.
Finally, there was a earlier government deadline that required all 25" or larger TVs being manufactured after July 1, 2006 to have an ATSC tuner. [There were later deadlines for smaller TVs]. Unless you wife bought a close-out 18 months ago, it should have an ATSC tuner.
Whether I pay for it then or I pay for it now, I'm still paying for it -- while the government and big business make money off of the deal. I'm subsidising them; that's what it boils down to.
Hopefully there is a net benefit to the public in that more services can be offered since more of the spectrum will be available post-conversion, but I'm still subsidizing the conversion. Those benefitting are not paying for the true cost of the benefit that they will receive. In effect, at least in the government's case,
it's a new tax. Oops, I meant "revenue enhancement."
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