Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/01/cable-prices-have-risen-at-mor.html
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^ This.
It’s a prime example of how the concentration of wealth works. Mass-distributed product with hungry capital backing it, slowly and increasingly leeching cash off unsuspecting consumers.
That reminds me - I’m paying 300% of my original health insurance quote! That’s about to change - hello new company!
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I’ll bet there are lots of things that have increased in price faster than the official inflation numbers. How about pizza! A slice cost me $0.15 in 1966.
$0.15 in 1966 = $1.11 today (inflation only) -
Price of a pizza hut large any and all toppings = 10 bucks - typically 8 slices per pie which brings the cost to $1.25 a slice.
I’m unsure that a $0.14 cent difference is making your point.
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I’m not talking Pizza Hut crap. This was Brooklyn family-run pizzaria. A pizza like that today might cost $15 to $20. I really have no idea, as I haven’t lived in NYC for more than 30 years, but in California this kind of pizza is around $18, I recall seeing slices selling for $2,50 or more.
Here’s the menu from a very, very popular pizza place in Berkeley: http://zacharys.com/locations/berkeley/#menu
Here’s anoother extemely popular Berkeley pizza outlet:
http://cheeseboardcollective.coop/pizza
Whole Pizza: $22+tax
How about them prices!
And if you don’t like the pizza example, how about college tuition? I paid $55/credit at a private college. Today, that college charges $1840/credit. That’s about twice the increase compared to pizza! 
All I’m saying is there are likely lots of examples of specific prices rising faster than inflation.
But clearly part of the story is this price-gouging, monopolistic practices, network shenanigans, and the worst customer service practices of any industry.
Don’t forget the cult of shareholder value. The customers get “serviced” in order to serve the shareholders. If the company is no longer growing fast enough through sales or acquisitions, then the existing customers must make up a larger share of the profits, to keep the shareholders fat and happy so that the executives and managers get their bonuses.
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Of course there are. Is it your point that since other things have risen faster than inflation, the cable companies aren’t price gouging, monopolistic, businesses with the worst customer service most people will ever encounter as presented by the article? Or, perhaps you think we need to list everything that has also risen faster than inflation if we are going to discuss this particular one. Help me understand what you are trying to get at.
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I can guarantee that a family run pizzaria in Brooklyn back in the 1960’s wasn’t making “Pizza: Butternut squash, dino kale, parsnip, mozzarella and cave aged Comtê cheese, toasted bread crumb, balsamic reduction, parsley”
Whatever the hell that is - it isn’t pizza. To your counter example you can go to Masa in NYC and spend 400-750 per person on dinner - making the 20 dollar pizza a value. Food (being priced based on subjective qualities) is a really bad example to use.
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Your example could not be more terrible when the top google result completely ruins it. Pizza that cost 15 cents then costs relatively close to the same now, and the really good places cost more - just like they always did.
Are you going to explain about how these poor defenseless oligarchs had to invest their own money to expand their coverage areas next?
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Never had cable. I would like a faster Internet connection besides my current DSL line but I just can’t stomach paying $100/month for a bundled TV+Internet+phone package that I don’t want and won’t use.
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Yeah, it’s just stupid that the only way to effectively lower your cable bill is to accept their crappy bundles. DSL isn’t going to cut it for streaming, so we’re stuck with the crapcastular local monopoly.
I sometimes wonder how many spam phone calls our VOIP phone line receives, though, but not enough to plug a phone into it. 
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We have enough competition in our city that we have 75 Mbs + crappy TV for $67 a month. We don’t use the TV that much (the only time it’s on is when the kids we watch come over). But having the fast Internet is very nice.
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I am thinking I got luck having work initially pay for my set up which is internet only.
Right now it is $65ish a month for 30mbps which is plenty fast $100 would get me gigabit IF it was in my area.
And the bundles for phone/tv/internet don’t work out to be that much of a deal over just paying for internet at least every time I look the comcrud pricing.
I now live abroad, and there are three or four choices for TV and Internet. We have 120/4 internet and basic cable (about 50 channels, but no HBO or similar) and we pay the equivalent of about $25/month. Of course, in relative terms, that probably works out to about $150/month.
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I’m not interested in ‘what the dollar amount is per month.’ Because that doesn’t tell the real story. What is the cost as a proportion of what you bring home per month as compared to stateside?
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That’s what the $150 is. But my income still comes from the US, and so for me this is cheap.
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I have Internet only thru telco DSL - $60/month for 6 Mbps 
Monopoly + exurban/rural area = no choice
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suck. I do know at least one of the suburb/exurbs around here has a municipal internet of some sort that is supposed to be a deal but then I would be away from everything else.
Time Warner’s modem fee has been going up 20% a year. The hidden fees should be required to be included in the marketed price of the service.
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