RobArt Penguin

When my wife and I got married, we subscribed to a local cable service, paying about thirty bucks a month. We got more channels than open air broadcast and no commercials. That was supposed to be the advantage of paying for cable: NO COMMERCIALS. But that changed quickly, when a big company bought our little service company. The commercials flooded in– and more channels meant more commercials. We bundled to save money, channel packages, internet, phone, etc. We got more for less, theoretically. But our net was higher, much higher. Now, we have a big bill that’s too complicated to figure out and impossible to determine if one of the myriad of alternative services are cheaper. And there are fees that come along no matter what we choose, right now at fifty dollars a month. I pay twenty bucks for a regional sport fee, even though I don’t watch sports. But they got us: it’s simpler to stay with what we have than trying to assemble various services to match what we watch or need. I am tempted to cancel all my services and start with free broadcast. Maybe, the simpler life is better and definitely cheaper.