Xm Radio Taxes
The cost of technology
Not long ago I was cleaning my files and shredding bills for years. Every year we dutifully pulled box my accounts and tax records and store them away in case I need to reference them. Periodically I get rid of them after sufficient time has passed and it is useless. This time I was considering what he had been paying for over ten years.
One of the first things I noticed was the difference in the cost of my phone. I used to pay for just one land line for around $ 50 a month that also accommodate my long distance charges. Today an average of $ 170 per month in phone charges to cover my phone cable and cell phones used by my family. This does not include hardware costs ranging from $ 50 to $ 400 for the phones themselves.
Does anyone remember when TV was free? I do. We had a lot of channels programming the time and was probably much better than it was today, since only the cream of the crop reached the airwaves. Today, my cable account averages about $ 36 a month for the basic package. I know a lot of other people who are paying much more for premium channels heckova. This means that we many more channels than in the old days, but I can not say we have a better programming many stations make almost anything to fill time. Another thing, does anyone remember the original premise cable? That would be a lot fewer ads in your case? I think the cable networks lost the memo. Hopefully, XM radio, another technology that now pays do not forget this.
For entertainment, playing cards and board games or just socialize. If you went to the movies, we go to the local theater and pay a couple dollars. Today we have movie theaters to see many different movies, usually generated by computer, Dolby surround-sound "for about $ 10 per person. Rent DVDs not so bad because there is fierce competition out there. I have curiosity to see the impact of movie downloads will have on the price of a movie.
Also we pay a lot of video games. The Xbox and Playstation range in price from $ 350 to $ 600 depending on the options requested, and this does not include the games themselves, ranging from $ 30 to $ 60 each. For example, the much touted "Halo 3" sells for about $ 60.
Hardware prices have fallen, but, curiously, software has increased, in particular the price of operating systems (ranging from about $ 100 to $ 300) and office suites ($ 120 to $ 500) and then have financial packages, graphics packages and parcels and other anti-virus utilities, etc. is not cheap. In total, the equipment costs have gone up, not to below.
cameras for domestic use and the development of films used to be pretty cheap too. Today we have digital cameras and camcorders, which vary in price from hundreds to thousands of dollars. I do not think anyone remembers "Brownie" cameras ", Instamatics", or Polaroid.
One has to ask, as the price of the technology increases, our quality of life has gone? I guess that's debatable. I know that driving has become in desperate as active people chat on their cell phones as opposed to concentrating on the road. It also seems that people like to "disconnect" in their iPods or other devices instead of socializing. And I wonder about the quality of our programming on television. All I can say is "Thank God for the controls distance. "They can not take pictures of a TV without one more.
Adding to it, would probably find that technology has quadrupled the cost of living, and that's probably a conservative estimate. A little fear is not it? Perhaps the best thing to do is to not only have to open those boxes of notes and simply burn in place.
This is my complaint of the Week.
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Copyright © 2007 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Tim Bryce is a writer and management consultant located in Palm Harbor, Florida.
You can find his work on the Internet at:
http://www.phmainstreet.com/timbryce.htm
He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com
Copyright © 2007 Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.
