Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

I finally bought a TV today. I have to go back tomorrow and pick it up. However, before I can watch it I have to buy a TV license.

Seriously?

Yeah. Seriously. Obviously my first reaction is "that's dumb." (I'm so articulate) I know we have plenty of taxes in the US, but taxing TVs?? Not only is there a tax, it's fairly substantial - 131.50 pounds per year. Multiply that by two to approximate the exchange rate and that's over $200 per year. I suppose in the grand scheme of all the taxes we pay, why not pay another $200?

It gets better. There are police to make sure you're paying your TV tax.


I genuinely wanted to know why they had the TV tax so I headed to Google. Is it a luxury tax? Socialism in action? Does collecting the tax just create jobs? Does it fund the BBC? The answer is that it's used to fund the BBC. Here is a link to the obligatory Wikipedia site - it never fails to have at least some kind of information, whether neutral or not. Here's another article that has some interesting background- again, not exactly unbiased.

Once I have a TV I can better judge my opinion on whether $260 a year is worth it for commercial free BBC. I'll see if it really delivers "superior programming." As an economist I would generally vote against another government run program but I suppose the jury's still out. It's similar to public schools I suppose. I pay taxes for public schools even if I go to a private school and I have to pay for the BBC even if I get cable. Hmmm...

Well, I don't think I've presented much of a cohesive post here so I'll go back to my first reaction- it just sounds stupid.