[net.misc] freeloading

lew (11/03/82)

Stop trying to make people feel guilty for watching public TV for free.
If you think you are paying for a service with your contribution you
are mistaken. The decision to contribute is independent of the decision
to watch. The service is free, maybe it shouldn't be. What about the
taxpayers who are paying for it but don't watch it at all?

Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew

CSvax:cak (11/05/82)

What many people seem not to realize about commercials in Europe
is that they can be sparse, cute, short, bunched, and whatever
because people pay TAXES to support programming, both TV and radio.
So the few commercials that are presented just make up the difference.

TV in most European countries is run by the government; programming
tends to be short (11 AM till 10:30PM?) and not very imaginitive.

I guess you get what you pay for. However, it is nice to find a good
movie (even if it's poorly dubbed) and not have to endure commercials
every 12 minutes.

Cheers,
chris