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House Passes TV Commercial Volume Bill
eldavojohn writes "About a year ago, legislation was introduced to control the volume of TV commercials. It passed the Senate in September and has now been passed in the House as well. This problem has dated back to the 1960s, but after the president signs the bill, broadcasters will be subject to regulations of the Advanced Television Systems Committee on what is 'too loud.' Of the last 25 quarterly reports from the FCC, this has been the number one consumer complaint in 21 of them. Within a year, you should start to notice a difference, with commercials no longer forcing you to turn down the TV volume during breaks in your regular programming."
If you claim to be a proponent of free markets, which means markets without any regulation whatsoever, then you must reject this law. According to your ideology, people want extremely loud commercials, because those people watch those commercials. To some people, it is circular logic to say that people get what they want, and want what they get. To those people, the way to determine what a person wants is to ask them what they want, which is the underpinning of this law; but to free market proponents, people by definition want loud commercials, and the evidence is that people don't completely reject the entire medium of television because of those loud commercials.
If you claim to support free markets, then speak up now and come out against this law. This is government meddling in private enterprise.
Right? Eh? Right, you libertarian Slashdotters? The fact that loud commercials didn't bring on the death of television is proof positive that people love and want loud commercials, right?