Congress wants to lower TV Comercial Volume

[Dr. Cool]

And, it is also true that totally unregulated competition results in things like the credit crunch

I totally disagree. The mortgage industry is one of the most regulated in our economy. Not only overregulated, but ridden by stupid regulations. No wonder it crashed and burned.
Notice that I'm not saying that regulations are not necessary. The protection of private property rights is a form of regulation that is necessary and works.
There's a big difference however between minimalist, necessary and intelligent regulations and heavy-handed, unnecessary and stupid regulations. Politicians spending my own money to control the loudness of my home theater from a desk in Washington is a perfect example of the latter.

 

[kvnfl]

I totally disagree. The mortgage industry is one of the most regulated in our economy. Not only overregulated, but ridden by stupid regulations. No wonder it crashed and burned.
Notice that I'm not saying that regulations are not necessary. The protection of private property rights is a form of regulation that is necessary and works.
There's a big difference however between minimalist, necessary and intelligent regulations and heavy-handed, unnecessary and stupid regulations. Politicians spending my own money to control the loudness of my home theater from a desk in Washington is a perfect example of the latter.

CAIR, FAIR and HOPE. CAIR started the pain. FAIR increased the pain by lowering credit score for mortgage eligibility from 730 to 628. Under FAIR the color of your skin was worth more than verifiable income. Minority mortgages accounted for 49% of all mortgages written between 1997 and 2005. Just before leaving office Congress passed HOPE to protect the Financial sector from the current mess in early 2006. Unfortunately very few in foreclosure know that HOPE exists and they are eligible for federal help.

But I digress. Facts often tend to confuse the issues.

 

[jcrash]

They screwed up the financial system pretty thoroughly. They are still screwing up health care. I am afraid of how loud commercials will become if this legislation passes.

FYI - the LACK of controls is what got you the financial system problems. More controls would've controlled the problem. Laissez-faire is tres stupide.

Healthcare isn't messed up. Self-preservation is the single biggest human instinct. You expect costs to be controlled in that type of environment? People don't care how much it costs when THEY are in the hospital - fix me first, then show me the bill. If you want to control the costs, you are going to have to be comfortable saying who gets to live and who gets to die. No politician will get elected if they answer that question. No matter how they answer it.

 

[kvnfl]

FYI - the LACK of controls is what got you the financial system problems. More controls would've controlled the problem. Laissez-faire is tres stupide.

Healthcare isn't messed up. Self-preservation is the single biggest human instinct. You expect costs to be controlled in that type of environment? People don't care how much it costs when THEY are in the hospital - fix me first, then show me the bill. If you want to control the costs, you are going to have to be comfortable saying who gets to live and who gets to die. No politician will get elected if they answer that question. No matter how they answer it.

No, it was the controls that screwed us. CAIR and FAIR as roughly outlined above are the reason Banks had to loan to people who lacked the ability to repay the loan.

Health care is in the process of getting thoroughly screwed. My wife pays 30% of her practices revenue on administrative costs to comply with all the laws regulating her profession. Research HEPA. That piece of legislative garbage required her to spend $100s of thousands to educate her office in how to comply with the new laws and pay for software that is HEPA compliant. In addition to this, about 50% goes to mandated insurance policies. She is seriously considering dropping all Medicare patients because the fed only pays $.60 on the dollar. Do the math.

Health care paperwork study
Study shows U.S. health care paperwork cost $294.3 billion in 1999 | HarvardScience

 

[jcrash]

No, it was the controls that screwed us. CAIR and FAIR as roughly outlined above are the reason Banks had to loan to people who lacked the ability to repay the loan.

Health care is in the process of getting thoroughly screwed. My wife pays 30% of her practices revenue on administrative costs to comply with all the laws regulating her profession. Research HEPA. That piece of legislative garbage required her to spend $100s of thousands to educate her office in how to comply with the new laws and pay for software that is HEPA compliant. In addition to this, about 50% goes to mandated insurance policies. She is seriously considering dropping all Medicare patients because the fed only pays $.60 on the dollar. Do the math.

Health care paperwork study
Study shows U.S. health care paperwork cost $294.3 billion in 1999 | HarvardScience

Ok, since you have all your abbreviations wrong, I'm gonna have to guess you don't know what you are talking about.

On the most pressing matter, the regulations you speak of were not the problem.

The Community Reinvestment Act actually dates well before Clinton's time. It has been amended several times. Note, however, that it applies to banks and not to the people that made all the stupid loans. You see, in the "old days" people loaned money only to people they thought were trustworthy and would repay the loan in the long run. Mortgage brokers and securitization changed that. Brokers only had to make sure someone didn't default for 90 days - that is all they were responsible for. The people that bought the mortgages in order to securitize them didn't look closely enough - and the securities ratings firms basically didn't look at all. What you had was a bunch of guys that were greedy.

The homeowner was greedy - they expected their home to rocket in value and to be able to refi out some more money for their next toy. The mortgage brokers gave loans to people they knew had no way to keep payments up - but 90 days at a 2% teaser rate was a cinch. The securities dealers made their money by being a middle man - they bought the mortgages and packaged them - their criteria? Do so in the least cost manner - WHAT they were buying or selling had nothing to do with it because the end BUYERS were also greedy and being told these were AAA and wouldn't go down.

Finally, the investment banks were given the green light in 2005 to BREAK the rules and lever 40 to 1. At 40 to 1 it takes a 2.5% decline to WIPE YOU OUT. No one can hedge that well - no one. It was a lit fuse.

So, don't lecture me on what you have no idea about.

 

[ronjohn]

You have clarity! As many wrongfully assume commercials will come down you see the obvious. The base volume of the shows will jump all over the place or some other annoying interpretation that will just make matters worse.

I think you are correct. The advertisements won't change. The dynamic range of the audio in the programming will disappear. When someone is whisperring, it will be as loud as when someone is screaming.

 

[Barry Erick]

It isn't the volume. It is about the amount of audio in a given time that makes one thing sound louder than another. Shows have paused and different levels of dynamic sounds. You could ride those at max volume with lots of compression to make everything the same level and it still would not sound as loud as a commercial with packed audio and less volume.