Indoor Plumbing Versus Television

Americans are more likely to buy a television than pay for an essential such as indoor plumbing.

That, at least, was the implication made this week by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell. To demonstrate how reasonable cable rates are, Powell told an audience of broadcast executives that “more Americans have television than indoor plumbing.”

But a closer examination of the numbers shows indoor plumbing is slightly more prevalent than TV.

According to census data for 1999 (the most recent comparable figures available), 98.6% of U.S. households had plumbing facilities. Only 98.2% had televisions, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, which supplies data to the Census Bureau.

The FCC said Powell was citing from older data gathered when indoor plumbing was measured more conservatively.

FCC spokesman David Fiske said the census now counts a household as having plumbing even if it is a shared facility, causing a rise in the numbers. A shared TV, however, isn’t counted as one for each household.