$180/mo cable bill - no wonder so many folks are going BK!

[bcohen]

The alternative, of course, is to cancel the cable and sign up for low-cost telephone and internet service only. When I lived in Illinois, I had home phone for about $40 a month, and DSL internet for about $30 a month and no cable TV. Now, living in Arizona, I get digital home phone and cable internet together for about $60 to $70 a month (depending on long distance usage, which I must pay by the minute for) and again no cable TV. I still use my trusty rabbit ears for TV reception, although after the digital transition now I have an additional piece of hardware, namely a DTV converter box, which goes between the antenna and the TV. I enjoy free high-definition programming without the hassle and expense of paying for cable TV.

Of course I don't really watch that much TV, and we don't have any children. I suppose that if you watch a lot of TV, and/or have kids in your household, then maybe cable or satellite TV is useful. I understand that there are certain channels, especially movie channels and childrens' channels that are only available on cable or satellite.

[olivies]

Ours is about 130 a month for cable/internet/phone. We have the lowest cable and internet package they offer, too. Of course, it's actually only 89.99 a month. Plus $5 a month for each of the 2 boxes. The rest.....taxes and regulatory fees. So that's about 25% of my monthly bill going to state, local and federal tax agencies.

[enuffznuff]

I live in Oregon. Now I live in an area with options, but until recently I lived in a more rural area.
I could not get reception of ANY channels with an antennae. NONE. We did not have locally produced channels. I lived in a heavily wooded area.

there was one cable company and one phone company. Minimum landline charge w phone co. was $50 a month, so I did cancel the landline, bc i had to have a cell for my business and couldn't do both.
Where I lived, there was NO DSL AVAILABLE. Again, NO DSL. Period. Clearwire was not available, no signal was receivable where I was.
I needed internet for my business, so my only options were dialup (lolol, and NOT highspeed) or cable. With no cable TV pkg, cable internet was $79.99 a month for the lowest. You could get the basic cable TV pkg + Cable internet for $85, before taxes and fees, so that's what I did. They did have a tv+phone+internet package that was $100 a month intro.

No, tv and internet are not necessities, but it's just silly to presume everyone has the same options.