Just a Concept?

Several months back, a guy who authors a popular television technology website posted an article that referred to the fallacious 500-channel universe. As I have stated in some previous posts, there are no cable or satellite systems in the U.S. (that I know of) which will currently allow their customers to subscribe to 500 or more channels. Yet people, including the guy I am referring to, talk about the 500 channel universe as if it has been a reality for over 15 years.

Anyway, I emailed him and challenged his 500-channel assertion. He promptly and sarcastically replied back that everyone knows the reference to 500 channels is "just a concept." Everyone but me, it seems.

I wonder what would happen if we applied this same kind of logic to other things. Let's suppose a company was opening up a new factory in your town and was placing help-wanted ads with salaries advertised as $1000 per week. Then suppose their new-hires took a look at their pay stubs after their first week of work and discovered that they had each received only $700 in gross pay for that week. If their boss explained this discrepancy by saying, "Come on folks, the $1000 a week thing is just a concept", do you think those workers would accept that as a valid answer?