Tired of having to rent your cable box?

July 1 is the real Independence Day for 65 million cable TV subscribers in the U.S. As of that date, says the Federal Communications Commission, they are free of the tyranny of being forced to rent miserable set-top boxes from their cable companies.

 It has already been 11 years since Congress ordered the cable industry to make it possible for consumers to buy their cable boxes in stores instead of renting. The theory, then and now, was that creating a retail market for boxes would make better and cheaper models available. A new FCC rule finally puts that congressional mandate into effect.

It’s only been 11 years?  It never made sense to me why a TV couldn’t have the ability to perform the same function as one of these boxes.  Your tv set has just as many channels…but alas, I’m sure it was the cable companies exercising their free market abilities and squashng competition while “lobbying” congress to create laws that are favorable to them.  Ah capitalism….aint it grand?