Prices and Cognitive Dissonance

A Rant about TV and Eggs

I am personally experiencing cognitive dissonance where the cost of television is concerned. My belief had been that “cutting the cord” was far less expensive than continuing on with cable¹. I cut the cord a couple years ago and went with YouTubeTV, after finding that SlingTV was a complete failure on my television sets.

But now, I have that true sense of discomfort that with their newest price increase: it may be cheaper to go back to cable. More likely, it’s a wash.

Yes. I am aware of Newton Minow’s description of television as “a vast wasteland”. Minow’s full speech (from 1961) is here. And yes, Marshall McLuhan's view that “the medium is the message.” Thirtieth anniversary edition of his 1964 book. I am never sure whether when I mention people, readers are familiar with them, and I’m always torn about how much information to provide. Lemme know…

I am further aware that there are people who either don’t ever watch TV, or only tune in for major events.

I am not those people. I am a devoted vidiot².

This cost increase is really bothersome to me³. YouTube TV was $64/month, rose to $73/month last year, and is going up to $83/month in January.

I am incredibly privileged that an extra $10/month is something I can absorb financially. For me, it’s the principle that it is a huge percentage raise⁴. For too many other people, they honestly don’t have another $10/month, especially since a lot of utility rates are rising in January. Example. A lot of monthly costs, like HOA fees, and real estate taxes, will also rise in January for many people.

Before you say it: I live in a valley and an antenna won’t work. And also, no, streaming on my computer is not the same.

It is a conundrum, and I’ve got a month to figure out what to do.

The pricing rise is fundamentally due to greed. The most expensive part of any TV package relates to sports. The carriage costs are so high because the whole sporting industry charges outrageous prices for everything from tickets to concessions to carriage fees so that they can pay even more monstrous salaries to their star (male) players. I could wax poetic on the insanity of paying $10 million salaries for people to chase balls around when there are homeless people starving, and while people who do actually important jobs like teachers and firefighters are woefully underpaid predicated on the contribution they make to society. But I’ll spare you that rant.

Which brings me to the cost of eggs. Here’s a nice chart from Axios.

Egg prices have increased about 70% in the past year, albeit not as high as a couple years ago. Bacon prices are also up, and while that is a concern to the Orange Menace, it shouldn’t be a concern for you. While I understand that many people love bacon, it’s really bad for you, whereas eggs are not. If you’re committed to the flavor of bacon, there’s always Bacon Salt, which is kosher and vegetarian. (I am not making this up.)

People eat eggs by themselves, and incorporate them into recipes. They were, for many years, a cheap source of good protein. And now they’re very expensive, comparatively.

Here’s the cognitive dissonance part: many people (likely not YOU) believe that eggs are expensive because of inflation, and more specifically, the Biden Administration and its policies. They voted for Don the Con because he said he’d bring grocery prices, including eggs, down in price.

Eggs are expensive because of the law of supply and demand. They cost as much as they do due to H5N1 causing chicken flocks to have to be killed off, thus decreasing supply. Even Nixonian price controls won’t bring down the cost of eggs. Only by solving the H5N1 problem can we get to lower egg prices. As an aside, it is safe to eat eggs bought from retail establishments that are cooked properly. Raw eggs, potentially not so much.

The new fascist regime won’t do anything about solving the H5N1 problem. They may well do away with the testing that the current administration has implemented for both chicken flocks and raw milk. H5N1 is spreading: it’s in mammals, including, but not limited to, red foxes, house cats, racoons, squirrels, and even black, brown and polar bears. Map here.

So that’s my Sunday rant. I’ve been working (for a couple weeks now) on a post about how the Democratic Party should move forward, but I just can’t get it right. It will eventually come together. This week, I’ll be looking at various newsy things, and then, posts will be intermittent from the 22nd of December through the 5th of January⁵.

1. In my case FiOS, which in my limited understanding is close enough to cable.

2. Yes, people who love me have discussed this with me. They cannot understand how someone who is a real reader and a member of the intelligentsia could stoop to enjoying live TV. But here I am.

3. It’s funny what people think is okay to pay a lot for, and other things that they can’t stand paying a lot for. My dad adored my mom from the moment he met her. She wanted a Steinway baby grand, he worked a second job for 5 years to buy her one. For their 40th anniversary, we went to the mall - dad wanted to buy mom something special. He didn’t care how much it cost. Mom wasn’t fancy and was disinterested in the selection. We decided to get ice cream, and dad went ballistic because each ice cream cone was 75 cents. In his mind, an ice cream cone should cost a nickel, and 75 cents was a bridge too far. People are funny about money.

4. Approximately 14%.

5. The company for which I work closes down for a holiday break, and between work, blogging, political work and trying to keep my house clean (that last one never goes so well) - I need a break. While I can’t stop blogging for two weeks, because it’s in my DNA, 6 posts a week is a lot of work, and I just need a little down time to get as strong as possible to hit the ground running in January.