Cheap IS Better?

(From The Avid Yahoo User's Group)

I often see images on digital cable that are truly ghastly and disfigured by compression artifacting.

We all hate that, but how can we prevent it?

Certainly broadcasters are unlikely to increase the bandwidth any time soon.

If anything, trends are in the OPPOSITE direction.
[Think iPod.]

In looking for some historical equivalent to the current trend towards worse quality throughout our society, I'd just like to know how it ended in the past so I can predict the future.

So far, I'm not seeing one.

We may be experiencing something truly unique in human history -- a strong market-based economy that has convinced the consumer that cheap is better.

The old axiom of "you get what you pay for," seems to have been lost somewhere in the last 20 years.

[True and very, very sad.]