[ohohyodafarted]

Actually Carmine if your are going to quote Karl Marx at least you could get the qoute correct.

Actually it goes like this

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

The basis of communism. To take from the haves and give to the have nots.

That is the exact philosophy of the liberal Democrats.

Anyhow I digress. Apparently you feel that the government should not have the right to control the airwaves. So lets extend your philosophy to the ultimate. Lets say that the US Government no longer regulates the airwaves (which according to you is the way it should be)

Now any Tom, Dick or Harry can transmit anything he wants at any power level on any frequency he chooses. Oh yes Carmine, that would be a wonderful way to use the airwaves. No more regulation, just a total bunch of chaos on the airwaves.

Please don't misunderstand me Carmine. I am not a proponent of big government. I happen to be an independent businessman and I lothe government interference. However there is a place for government regulation and the FCC is one of those areas that is necessary. Just as we need laws to prevent robery, murder, rape, and other types of social disorder.

Or would you have us go back the the 1950's-60's when cars didn't have a catlytic converter and spewed huge amounts of polution into the air we all breathe. I think we can all agree that clean air is a good thing and dirty car exhaust is not. Well.... there's another example of the government mandating an improvement that the private sector would not have taken upon themselves to impliment.

And the FCC decision to go digital with TV in order to open more chanels in the same amount of spectrum is a wise decission which efficiently uses the available bandwidth. And contrary to your postulation that it will eliminate many small marginal stations, the contrary is true. Going digital will allow a huge number of additional television licenses to be issued to many small marginal would-be broadcasters who would otherwise not have been able to afford the cost of a license because there wasn't enough bandwidth. I predict you will see a lot of new special interest group chanels such as public access which is only available now over cable. You need to open your mind to the possibility of having 10 times the number of chanels we now have under the analog system. All living in peaceful co-existance with each other, with no cross chanel interference. In essence, we will start to approach the kind of chanel diversity we can only have now over cable or satelite dish. With digital transmissions over the air subscription tv like HBO or Pay-Per-View will be possible. It wil open up more competition to the cable and satelite dish companies, fostering price competition and the elimination of the natural monopoly they now have. The future of digital television is bright and exciting.

I have said enough on this subject and strongly suspect that I will not be swaying anyones opinion. Therefore I am wasting my time trying to educate those who have a closed mind to this issue.