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TV detector van

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Re: TV detector van

#291

Post by dylan604 »

notzuck wrote: post #289
dylan604 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just thinking about the grass isn't always greener kind of situation. Everyone hopes somewhere else is going to (have to?) be better than here. Where ever there/here actually are.

Absolutely right but moving to Australia has genuinely massively improved our standard of living beyond what i thought was even possible. I can't believe how good we have it here.

I almost didn't leave when I visited Australia and New Zealand. I telecommute, so it wouldn't matter if I was across the country or the planet. Plus, getting paid in US dollars living in NZ with the strong dollar would be like a pay raise. If only I had the 'get up and do it' enough to do it.

Re: TV detector van

#292

Post by fengazer »

soneil wrote: post #248
raverbashing wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enforcement actions and publicizing of the license in the UK seem to be the most dystopian, in Ireland it's a bit over the top as well But you're right, it is present in multiple countries, I think Germany and France just turned it into a household fee

I think there’s talk of moving to a household fee here too. Oddly, making it universal seems to be more acceptable than a consumption tax. On one hand, I can see the plus sides - there’s a lot more ways to consume national broadcasters now, and it seems strange that I should pay to receive the national broadcaster on my TV, but if I scrapped the TV and watched it on my laptop, I wouldn’t (I know the UK complicates th…

IIRC (and this was dear to my heart in the UK as a non-motor-vehicle-driving taxpayer), road tax isn't a thing. There's vehicle excise duty, but that's not earmarked for roads (since 1937, according to https://ipayroadtax.com/no-such-thing-as-road-tax/bring-back...).

Also: "The maintenance and improvement of these roads are funded through local council taxes, fees, and central government grants." - https://www.loc.gov/law/help/infrastructure-funding/englanda...

So rest assured that if you pay tax in the UK, you pay for roads along with other infrastructure and services.

And now for something completely different... I recall being told, by a man who knocked on my door in a college residence, that the van had detected my television. I had no television set. He asked to come in and look. I declined and he went away. Either enforcement by deception, or a creep using a pretext to get into womens' college rooms. Either way, bad!

I do miss the BBC website without ads and BBC iPlayer though. We had a television in later years (and a license).

Re: TV detector van

#294

Post by anticensor »

toyg wrote: post #264
raverbashing wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enforcement actions and publicizing of the license in the UK seem to be the most dystopian, in Ireland it's a bit over the top as well But you're right, it is present in multiple countries, I think Germany and France just turned it into a household fee

In Italy it has been merged into electricity bills. I kid you not. And of course, the state broadcaster (RAI) is still chock-full of ads on all its channels. This is because it's not a media organisation as much as a cash-machine for aides and cronies of the government du-jour, with each channel literally allocated informally to each major party. You can imagine the average production quality.

Turkey does the electricity bill thing too.

Re: TV detector van

#295

Post by hprotagonist »

gumby wrote: post #17
hprotagonist wrote: post #6

“Ministry of oooowsinge?” “it was spelt like that on ‘t van!” “what van?” “the cat detector van.” “you are a loony. “

My immediate thought too! I'm glad someone else got the reference.

“i’m raising polecats for peace!”

Re: TV detector van

#296

Post by raverbashing »

blibble wrote: post #272
raverbashing wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enforcement actions and publicizing of the license in the UK seem to be the most dystopian, in Ireland it's a bit over the top as well But you're right, it is present in multiple countries, I think Germany and France just turned it into a household fee

"enforcement" consists of them sending you nasty letters, then after after 6 months knocking on the door and asking "sir do you own a television set" to which my response was "sod off", and they did repeat again every 5 years

It does get escalated sometimes https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/24/in-court-non...

Re: TV detector van

#297

Post by dzhiurgis »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #281
dzhiurgis wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.

As a Kiwi Expat, I beg to differ. Australia takes that title. Better incomes, quality of living (houses are vastly better quality), infrastructure, entertainment, and weather.

Better salary and better entertainment. I gain first one by working remote, second don't care that much.

The downsides is extreme weather, too big cities and much less nice people (historical backgrounds between kiwis and aussies are polar opposites).

Re: TV detector van

#298

Post by dzhiurgis »

_-___________-_ wrote: post #217
dzhiurgis wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.

> NZ is probably best place in the world. Unless you, say, like to travel, or want to live in a place with people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Last year we moved to place a bit outside city. Previously, waking up on weekends meant planning a hike somewhere. Now we are just like "hey it's pretty nice just to chill here, lets just stay home". Sure, travel is more about discovering something new, but from beauty side, it sometimes even annoys me how pretty NZ is.

Culture wise, I keep saying NZ is like 50s in US - tons of new expats, everyone with decent background, keen to work hard. Most of Europe and US has now second generation foreigners which is not that interesting. Simple number: software teams I worked on only had 10-30% of kiwi's.

Re: TV detector van

#299

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

groundlogic wrote: post #176
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think (centrist) Swedish public broadcasting is all-consuming leftist, I have really bad news about the current (centrist, but notionally centre-left) Swedish government!

The current Swedish government is centrist on money issues, and very leftist on cultural issues. The same goes for the public broadcasting.

Sweden has the immigration policy of a generic Western state (but accepts some more refugees) and the national broadcaster is as centrist as they come, putting out all sorts of things leftists wouldn't particularly like. Your political perception is warped.

Re: TV detector van

#300

Post by dzhiurgis »

jmole wrote: post #209
dzhiurgis wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved to NZ. Glad to get out of UK's weather and rat race. Went to Hawaii for couple weeks one year ago. Experienced culture shock. NZ is probably best place in the world.

Care to elaborate on that? Culture shock from what? What makes NZ the best?

Culture shock from drugs, homeless, guns and just this extreme lifestyle. Difficult to explain. We arrived from one island of paradise to other and sure, climate is better in Hawaii, but big cities, big trucks, big corp...

And then there was other side of anit-vax, anti-gmo, anti-progress people... We've got some of that in NZ, but nowhere close so visible.

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