Cable companies. Why can't I pick my channels?

It has occurred to me that we watch perhaps ten channels on TV between the four of us. So many channels, so much crap. Of course, the FCC wants cable companies to let us only pay for channels we watch and what's wrong with that? I hear Disney charges $2.50 per subscriber for ESPN (I don't watch) and probably a chunk for MTV (I don't watch), ESPN2 (I don't watch), We (I don't watch), ABC Kids (I don't watch), etc, etc.

Why do I have to pay for channels I don't watch, don't want to watch, and wouldn't watch if it was the only channel on the TV? Because we're subsidizing companies that have 30 or 40 channels and want us to pay for them all. Want to offer ESPN to your subscribers? Must only include it in a package that has all these other 30 crap channels that you must pay us for.

Fine. Put the mega-channel-companies into their own tiers so I can decide that I don't want to pay for DISNEY Inc. or some other megacorp.

And I watch less TV each year and soon the $$$ the companies charge won't cover the channels I watch.