Sunday, November 04, 2012

Big Bird and PBS

PBS has become more of a business than a public service.  People talk of how they have no commercials.  That is simply not true.  They just put the commercials at the beginning and then end of the show.  Then they beg for donations and have the government fund them.  It is very much like paying for cable TV and then having to watch commercials too.  Except in the case of PBS, they want you to pay for it three times.


I loved shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers when I was a kid.  I believe that if PBS moved to being a self sustaining network it would still do just fine, because many of the things they do are good and the programs are loved by many.

These days they could even cut costs by putting the programming as on demand on the internet.  Kids watch things over and over and over again.  They could get revenue every time a kids watches the show.  Each kid would probably watch each episode 10 or more times.  This instead of having them only watch it when it is on TV.

If PBS does end up failing, then it shows that there weren't as many people who wanted it as we think and the government is for the people and if the people don't want it, then it shouldn't be funded anyway.

Eat the Rich?

This concept of living off the rich by making them pay and pay and pay is ridiculousness.  This country was founded on everyone having the opportunity to make their own way in the world, not have the government mandate that others have to give it to us.  This is true for individuals as well as businesses.

Government needs to get out of the way and let businesses innovate.  Lots of regulation and taxes slows that down.  Initiatives to encourage people to buy American also discourages that.  Business need to be encouraged to do it better and more efficiently than the other guy to survive.  If a business fails, then it should be allowed to fail and someone else will step up and get it done.

As far as making the rich give up what they have, I say leave the rich alone.  I want to be rich when I grow up and I don't want people dictating how I spend my money.

What is crippling families?  High prices and lack of employment.  The more that government drives down on businesses in order to fund welfare programs, the more welfare programs will be necessary, because business will do what they need to to survive and guard profits, which means prices will go up and employees will not be hired and some may even be cut.  To guard profits they will choose to grow at a slower pace and charge more to maintain.

If you want lower unemployment and lower prices then get out of businesses way and let them grow and make money, which will force them to hire more people to sustain that growth.

If you tax the businesses more and put more regulations on them that make it expensive for them to do business they will defend their profits and pass on the cost to the consumers through higher costs of the product or through laying or and not hiring more employees.