I'm an old man, too. My back hurts and I yell at the clouds plenty. That's why I use the antenna. I have never paid for cable TV. I have cable internet, but not TV. I get that we can feel like companies charge too much for a service, but I don't believe they are price gouging. They are simply working in the free market. When their price gets too high, either customers will decide to find another source or not watch at all. When the system is working correctly the customer always feels like they could get a slightly better deal and the supplier always feels like they could have charged a little more.
On a side note, is there anyway you could post that pricing plan from the 1900's. I would love to see what we were complaining about back then.