Cable lobby and Republicans fight proposed ban on early termination fees / Customers should be allowed to cancel cable TV without penalty, Democrats say::Customers should be allowed to cancel cable TV without penalty, Democrats say.

      • kromem@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        34
        ·
        11 months ago

        Not the voters though.

        That’s the part that’s wild.

        Many Republicans have cable, and probably even complained in the past about being ripped off with something related to their cable (no one I know loves to complain about losing money more than the Republicans I know).

        And yet they vote for people that actively try to prevent that pain from going away.

        It’s like they are all masochists voting in as extreme sadists as possible so their representatives will hurt them more.

        “Ohhh Daddy, tie up the FCC and spank me with more monopolistic cable fees.”

        • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          11 months ago

          “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

          -LBJ

        • cedarmesa@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          If I were a grifter Id need to find gullible people to grift. Where might I find a list of folks with a proven track record of being imbeciles who would swallow the most obvious lies with glee? Id look to churches. This is the republican party. A bunch of snake oil salesmen and grifters at the top only interested in power and money and their drooling horde of imbeciles being strung along with ever more fantastic lies and conspiracy theories. All ya gotta do is say youre the party of jesus. They come pre lobotomized from the churches.

        • linearchaos@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          11 months ago

          They don’t like paying the fee, but they’re willing to take one for the team as long as they know that it hurts poor people more.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    ·
    1 year ago

    Another example of a thing I figured 10+ years ago.

    Take a headline, strip it of political references. Just the facts in question. Ask yourself, “Will this initiative hurt people?” Doesn’t matter if you feel those people deserve to be hurt. Merely ask, “Will people be hurt?”

    And now you know who’s voting for it! I played this game with myself for years. Never got it wrong.

    • kromem@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      31
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      It cuts both ways though.

      In theory one could argue that eliminating ETFs would hurt the company owners and investors, who technically are people.

      So it does kind of matter which people are being hurt and if they deserve it or not.

      • Odelay42@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        11 months ago

        Extremely bad take, lol.

        If the company isn’t financially sound without charging customers to no longer be customers, the business isn’t viable.

        What an asinine attempt to justify predatory, anti-consumer behaviour from corporations.

        • kromem@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          14
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          I’m not sure what part of my “technically are people” language (or comment elsewhere in this thread here) made you think I’m justifying it.

          But that is the fiscal conservative argument whether either of us thinks it is a good one or not, and thus a broad “it hurts people” needs greater specificity to scope it to main street concerns and not wall street concerns.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            11 months ago

            This is some real ‘paradox of tolerance’ reasoning here. Clearly by ‘will people be hurt,’ they mean the average person, not the investor class.

          • Retrograde@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            and there it is, the double down lol

            Gross, dude. Listen to yourself.

            The next time you get charged $200 for an early termination, I hope you think “I’m happy the shareholders didn’t get hurt”.

            Fuck’s sake.

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    29
    ·
    11 months ago

    I find it hard to believe that anybody who hasn’t had a frontal lobotomy or isn’t a corpo ratfucker could ever be in favor of early termination fees as a legitimate and healthy business practice.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      18
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      Strong disagree regarding it as a business measure in whole. Without penalties for breaking contracts, many business relationships will absolutely fall apart.

      Rather, this is an issue of consumer protection, and consumer rights should generally be given preferential treatment over contracts for the same reasons unions exist - it levels the playing field between entities of far differing power and means.

      I absolutely guarantee that lobbyists are pitching that first half at republicans and downplaying the everliving fuck out of the second.

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        We’re obviously talking about consumer contract law here, so the point of business relationships falling apart is moot.

        If cable companies could prove to me that them pressing a button to cancel my service merits the exorbitant cancellation fees that they charge, then maybe I’d change my opinion.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          I mean that’s why I said this

          Rather, this is an issue of consumer protection, and consumer rights should generally be given preferential treatment over contracts for the same reasons unions exist - it levels the playing field between entities of far differing power and means.

          “Early termination fees” do not solely apply to cable companies, and by and large are a good thing - this is how they shoved them past what should be common sense consumer protection legislation, which I also mention.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    Quick Trivia Question: When in history have conservatives ever been the good guys?

    Answer: Trick question! The answer is never.

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    Cable lobby and Republicans …

    Isn’t that a little redundant? Aren’t Republicans and big business lobbies effectively the same thing?

  • andrewta@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    11 months ago

    where are people living that they have termination fees on cable tv? I am in Minnesota with Spectrum (previously charter (previously something else)) … I could call in tomorrow and drop the service and there wouldn’t be a termination fee. They would give me an option : use it for the rest of the billing period or just cancel it now and prorate the amount I’ve paid.

    I’m not saying fees don’t exist. I’m just curious what companies are charging them and where these people live.

  • ohlaph@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 months ago

    Holy fucking shit, what aren’t Republicans againt when it comes to the people. The party of pro life sure are against the people.

  • abuttifulpigeon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    11 months ago

    While this would be wonderful, I also believe that Cable providers are private companies, and shouldn’t be regulated by the government.

    • bruhduh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      11 months ago

      If they wouldn’t apple would still sell lightning ports instead of type c, if government regulate behaviour of citizens they should regulate behaviour of corporations too, USA government said that corporations have legal rights as persons but somehow they don’t have same obligations as persons while they should have, if do A then do B it’s pretty simple

    • btmoo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      I feel like conversatives just learn first principals and stop there. It’s kinda sad. The FCC, FTC, etc exist in order to keep our markets fair and consumer friendly.

      This weird, free-trade utopia that they dream about does not exist, has never existed, and cannot exist. Instead when you remove all the regulation, you get anarchy like we see today in many 3rd world countries.

      I would love to see our government get more efficient and targetted with its regulation, but to simply argue against it is extremely naive.