OT Rant BBC license any alternative?

I pay for large numbers of police to keep the chavs under control in the big cities. I live in a low crime village where we hardly see the police.

Why should I pay?

Hint: that's how taxes work - for the good of the all at a price everyone can afford (more or less)

Reply to
Tim Watts
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A society where everyone paid only for the things they used directly and for nothing else would not function.

Reply to
Mark

Then it's time the system was changed.

Reply to
Huge

That might be how taxes are intended to work, or perhaps how they used to work, but it sure as shit isn't how they work now.

Reply to
Huge

How far would you go? I don't have kids - should I pay towards education? I've never used the fire service. Etc.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Then you'll get eye-ache - you know, what you get if you sing "Old MacDonalds" too often.

Reply to
Tim Streater

Would you say that the _BBC_ is "for the good of the all", as you put it?

Reply to
Frank Erskine

Nah, we've not had a left-wing government in the country for at least 40 years.

JGH

Reply to
jgharston

Last true one was when Heath was prime minister. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

"Dave Plowman (News)" :

Me neither.

I think of it as paying the country back for my own education.

Reply to
Mike Barnes

Until general taxation was under 10% of GDP. Diminishing returns applies here as in all things!

Reply to
Huge

Lots of people do watch the BBC so I must say yes.

The main point was that taxes are a convenient mechanism to even out the costs of general services.

I'd pay a little extra tax to do away with the license. Something else I don;t have to remember every year, I'd do the same for Third Party car insurance and VED too - which would solve a whole bunch of other problems...

Reply to
Tim Watts

Buy the do.

Your streets are at some level clean and repaired aren't they? You have police (at some level), healthcare, libraries, etc etc.

You may not want all of those, but I presume you enjoy some of them?

Reply to
Tim Watts

Personally I think good education is important for everyone. Even if you don't have kids you benefit from a well educated society.

Reply to
Mark

+1. Especially VED. The tax burden should be moved from vehicle ownership to use in a neutral way.
Reply to
Mark

That's the "60,000,000 flies" argument which I consider to have little merit.

(Shit must be a tasty nutritious meal since so many flies eat it.)

Reply to
Huge

Buy the do? :o)

Been a long week, huh?

Yeah and I really like handing over 50% of my income for the potholes, police whose job seems to be to hand out crime numbers, unavailable dentistry and free prescriptions for the Welsh and Scottish and the libraries that are closed when I can get to them.

Reply to
Huge

[big snip]

Me 2.

The Government would also save a bit of cash by getting rid of the whole organization no longer needed to collect and enforce the licence fee.

It would make even more sense now that they're raiding the license fund to pay for non TV things like a contribution towards introducing faster broadband

Reply to
Mike Clarke

Yes - new job, loads of things to fix...

Granted. Now take everything tax pays for - I mean every last thing - you will find that you benefit from some, surely.

Imaging how complicated the system would be if you were usage-tested on every facility you made use of, assessed as to how much you used it and weighted according to your means.

It would be ompossible to have a system which every single person would consider "fair".

Tax is the simplest and overall the fairest system IMO for a great many things.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Especially as people with the lowest incomes tend to have the greatest need of public services.

JGH

Reply to
jgharston

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