Lose the TV/Land Line, Save the Cell/Computer
by Mark Ontkush, Boston, Massachusetts, USA 
on 08. 5.07
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed this perky graphic to help American chart that on which their tech dollars are blown. Wired noticed that although high tech gear gets cheaper every year, the proportion of the typical US household budget reserved for tech spending has held steady for the past decade. On balance, it's more than what we pay for health insurance, more than prescription drugs, or more than clothing. There's some fun in these numbers.
First, they use the term 'televisions', as if it's a given that we all need 4 or 5 of those around at any given time. In fact, this is not too far off; the average US household has about 2.1 per US household. This, coupled with the absurd annual $519 bill for cable TV leads to green tip #1; stop buying TVs and cable service, and invest in a cell phone with either a wind up or solar charger. Alternatively, get a computer and internet service; the access to free green information will serve you better than the canned stuff on TV. Literally, stop thinking about the box.
Second, almost half of the tech budget is used on phone service, the infamous cell phone/land line combo. I understand that people don't feel too good when their cell phone goes dead because the power goes out, but the problem here is that these phones operate on two different systems, and Verizon has already said they are only going to support one of them. An idea; lose the landline. You are going to have to anyway, and you can take that money and put it into green tech like beefy solar chargers and smart strips.:: Fat Knowledge ::Wired
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It's things like this that remind he how easy it is to be frugal: I don't have cable or a landline. one small tv (only used for the Wii), a laptop with a middle-level DSL connection. and as soon as my contract on my cell phone runs out I'm going to the pre-paid t-mobile plan ($100 should last me about 3 months)
Combine this with using a bike and getting monthly bus passes, living in a small apartment and shopping at local farmer's markets.
I guess I can do this because of where i live mostly (Boulder, CO) but it's strange to hear about people who feel trapped by how much they spend.
I do not own a television but rather a 50 inch plasma monitor & dvd surround to enjoy movies in the utmost....about once a week. I don't own a cell phone because no one really needs a cell phone, that's just ridiculous to think we do need them. I have a rotary dial land line with a phone from the 1940's (love the ring) and although rotary will soon be out I can get an adaptor which will allow me to continue using it. Of course I have the internet for which gives me information on a level unheard of previously on our planet for the average, every day fellow. I also have an old fashioned answering machine which I love to hear when I come home and am doing everyday chores or decompressing... and I find people, when they find I have an old answering machine actually leave messages. I don't have caller i.d. or any of that crap and I pay a nickle a minute for long distance. I steal my internet services from the air (it's easy to do) and can't imagine paying for it....If I had to I wouldn't and I'd just go down to a place with free wireless. NOW, why do I do all of this? Not because I'm "uncool" or poor, but rather because I just cannot stand being held hostage by all this crap around us today. The way it used to be in the 80's and before was perfectly fine, I don't have to be at someones beckon-call and at a moments notice because of a cell phone....I don't have to suffer horrible and insulting commercials because I wan't to watch a rerun of seinfeld.....I can just be. By the way just as a side note and without going through 20 names: The top men in business DO NOT carry cell phones...... probably a reason for that, they're secure with themselves for one. Have a good day and remember: You don't always have to buy what they're sellin.'
regarding the comment above: stealing wireless or cable is illegal and not cool. i don't recommend that. if everyone stole stuff, how great would our world be? it certainly wouldn't be very great. I'd quit bragging about it if I were you.
I've sometimes thought about ditching the landline phone, except for one little problem - our inconsistent cell phone service within our home. Reception just isn't good enough here.
The text in the above graphic is too small to be readable on my screen. Is there a bigger version?
[follow the Wired link mjo]
A) I would love to lose my land line. Can someone please tell me how to do that and still get to the internet. Cable is out, the only service in our area that is worse than the phone service (Verizon) is the cable company.
B) You are preaching to the choir here. I print out posts like this and give them to people who fit this demographic, but they still don't have a clue.
Brilliant diagram, just brilliant. I love it! Very interesting statistics as well that gives tremendous insight into the American spending habit and value system. I've got to say, though, it makes me wonder about all that complaining about your healthcare system considering the average household spent more than 50% on technology than on health insurance. I can't say I get it. Love the story, though. Very nicely done.
I've got to say, though, it makes me wonder about all that complaining about your healthcare system considering the average household spent more than 50% on technology than on health insurance. I can't say I get it.
A good chunk of health care expenses are borne by companies, which of course is passed on to consumers and is a loss in terms of potential compensation and/or employment. That figure is also only "health insurance," not all health-related expenses.
Health care is over 16% of personal consumption expenditures, and that doesn't include government outlays for Medicare and Medicaid.
Really neat graphic chart. It's about time somebody changed it's approach. Though I'm not sure I can really read it, since it's so small.
Neat approach.
I completely disagree with the "lose the landline" comment. Having just a landline is much greener and much less stressful--all you do is plan ahead, and life is so much simpler, a million less interruptions. If you're attached to your cell, okay, but don't pretend it's better environmentally and try and get everyone to lose their landlines. Nice call on ditching the idiot box, though.
I am probably being too harsh, but until ad-hoc wireless mesh networks (which dont require cell towers) erase the cell phone companies (or at least the need for their their evil 'customer service'), making cell calls free (or nearly so), I am not terribly interested in getting one. Noone should have to put up with that crap. (see wwwDOTconsumeristDOTorg)
...OTOH, if I had more of a social life I might change that opinion
Also my landline phone provider is my internet connection. I don't bother with cable, but rather rent the odd video or game played via an aging PS2 on a 10 year old Sony Trinitron CRT...which will be replaced when uber flat energy sipping Nanotech based displays arrive.
The 2+ TVs-per-household phenomenon is spreading in Europe, partly because of the poor take-back policies of electrical stores and brands like Sharp, Sony and Panasonic.
Where in the U.S. can you get health insurance for a household for $1361 a year (per Wired graphic)? We pay $6000 per year for our family, not including the portion paid by our employer. Maybe they factored in the 45 million Americans without health insurance to bring the average down.
I think the loose the landline option is for if your going to have and keep cell phone service, not to go out and get cell phone service to replace the land line. However I'm paying $40/month for a land line and $40/month for cell phone service. What do I get for each, $40 buys me a land line that only rings when someone wants to do a "survey" and 50% of the time I pick it up I get no dail tone (phone company claims that squirrels chew the wires). $40/ month for a cell phone gets me free long distance so I can call my parents in a different state without any long distance charges.
I need the cell phone for those weeks I'm on call for work. So what I'm doing now is consolidating, I'm going to buy a smartphone or pdaphone so I can leave my personal laptop turned off (have t use it for calendaring since my work only has lotus notes and were not allowed to install any software on the office pc's so that prevents me from having a working calendar) and I plan to drop the land line and replace the home line with viop service rather than spend $40 a month for a half the time working phone line.
I disagree with this premise - it's not that easy to drop these services in some markets. Example:
In most of Chicago, you can get your internet from either the Cable Co., or the Phone Company.
If you want DSL, as far as i know, you must also pay for a phone line.
If you want cable internet - the prices are exorbitantly high ($60+ a month, with taxes and equipment, once discounts have run out) ... unless you also subscribe to cable tv.
So, it's not that every person out there wants cable and internet and a landline and a cell ... it's more like the big telecom companies have us Right. Where. They. Want. Us.
"Where in the U.S. can you get health insurance for a household for $1361 a year (per Wired graphic)? We pay $6000 per year for our family, not including the portion paid by our employer. Maybe they factored in the 45 million Americans without health insurance to bring the average down."
That's exactly what they did. That's the number that comes out when you divide total expenditure by the number of households. We pay a hair under $6k/year for private health insurance too (self-employed), and that's for a young healthy family of three. Oh, and add another $2k for deductibles. The health care system is completely broken.
I am sick of the cell phone leash I've had for 8 years when not just about everyone it seems had one. I remember when I first got one my boss at the time saying some day it would be cool to not own one. Since then I have seen many my friends acquire them, and then subsequently be at the beck and call of others much more than before. One of them was envious the other day when I reminded him when he didn't have one and his wife didn't call hiim all the time about the stuff that really can wait. On the surface that seems more secure but indeed you do give up a kind of security both in yourself and in your relationships by living your live that way.
More practically I am giving up my cell and switch to a Vonage WiFi phone, and I am going to see how it works to make a phone call just when there is an Open AP. I can call internationally and just in specific known places, and it's synced up with my home phone. $15 more a month for 400 minutes, and I barely talk on the phone that much at home. Call me crazy but something about random convenience seems more secure.
As people in the above comments have said, giving up on a landline is not a good idea. Cell phone jammers are quite easy to make and use and current cell phone networks cannot handle as big of a load at one time as the landlines. Also, cell phones are not 'eco-friendly'. They're a waste of electricity. If anything, ditch your cell phone.
Everybody needs less television.