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Should cell phone companies be allowed to hold customers to long service contracts? That's somewhat akin to asking if mortgage companies should be allowed to hold customers to long contracts when they buy a house.

I suppose we could qualify that statement by asking if anyone was holding a gun to the customers' head when they signed up or if their wife and children were being held hostage but short of that, what is the problem? No one forced anyone to sign the contract. There may or may not be clauses in the contract the customer wasn't aware of but were they hidden? Did the customer have a chance to read the contract before they signed it? Was the customer adult and responsible for their own actions?

Oh the poor customer didn't know. Well, the poor customer has no one to blame but themselves.

Are there bad contracts out there? Of course there are. Are their companies that take advantage of the unwary? Unfortunately that is also true. Conversely there are also companies that do their best to provide their customers with the best service they can.

I know that it is now being argued that cell phone companies are almost utilities but the key word here is almost'. Utilities are regulated by public utilities commissions and the reason is that these utilities have a monopoly. If there is one power company in your area and you don't like them, too bad. They are the ones you have to deal with. The public utilities commissions are there to make certain the public is treated fairly.

Cell phone companies are not monopolies. If I don't like the service I'm receiving from my cell phone carrier, I'm free to buy from another company. It's a matter of free choice. It's the United States. We get to choose things here. It's also called the free enterprise system.

Three weeks ago now, my wife and I became acutely tired of what was on television. Our opinion was that most of the programs that are on are garbage. We didn't expect the government to make the television networks put out programs that we liked instead of those we objected to. We turned off the television instead and it's been off ever since. We are becoming re/acquainted with the local library. Instead of racing to see what is on television, my wife and I actually spend more time talking to each other and going for walks and enjoying our home.

Choice. Free choice. That's what our country is really all about. Granted, there are things in our system that need to be fixed but the length of cell phone contracts isn't one of them.

Maybe instead of over regulating everyone, we could all just grow up a little and be responsible for what we are doing.

Learn more about this author, Bill Woffington.
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