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    #61
    Re: Communism!

    Things can be run just as poorly by the gooberment as they can be by private companies. There is a problem, though, when the government runs a legal monopoly - competition is illegal.

    I'm not saying that government run businesses are, ipso facto, bad, but they are not, ipso facto, good either.

    Moving a problem from A to B does not solve a problem, it moves the problem...
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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      #62
      Re: Communism!

      You don't get sent to prison for not buying a TV license, you are supposedly breaking the law of you watch live TV without a TV license. Very, very few people get caught and even fewer are prosecuted. The answer is: watch catch up tv, available for most channels, particularly the BBC who try and enforce the TV license. I can't see it lasting much longer, what with Netflix, Amazon Prime, 4OD and torrenting. It's just not viable. Either the BBC will have to go private or start justifying the TV license with better use of money, because at the moment it is currently NOT doing that. BBC shows very little of any quality, most of that is on BBC4 in my opinion! But yeah, I'd say we are under a fair amount of financial oppression, just not social oppression.
      I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
      Or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
      But that day you know I left my money
      And I thought of you only
      All that copper glowing fine

      Comment

        #63
        Re: Communism!

        Originally posted by Tylluan Penry View Post
        Actually, as an old fashioned socialist, I preferred it when the railways etc were nationalised. It was a better deal and the service was better across the board. Now some areas (like mine) are just a mess.

        Also I don't think people should be sent to prison for not buying a television licence every year. Especially since the money ONLY goes to the BBC.
        I agree with the rail service. Ours are state-owned, but they run it like a private corporation (basically, it's technically a joint stock company in which the government owns ALL of the shares), which makes it super expensive. They complain to the press when profits sink, and I'm all like "you're a state company and YOU'RE MAKING MONEY...stop complaining and use it to renew the infrastructure, because we badly need it." I mean, it's not like they have to please the shareholders. They're the only shareholders!

        I don't mind paying our TV license, but it's mandatory, so everyone has to pay it, whether they own a TV or not. It goes towards radio and digital content, and people who don't even own a radio are so rare that it's not even worth bothering with. Students and unemployed people don't have to pay it (I think people who earn below a certain income are also off the hook).

        - - - Updated - - -

        Originally posted by B. de Corbin View Post
        Things can be run just as poorly by the gooberment as they can be by private companies. There is a problem, though, when the government runs a legal monopoly - competition is illegal.

        I'm not saying that government run businesses are, ipso facto, bad, but they are not, ipso facto, good either.

        Moving a problem from A to B does not solve a problem, it moves the problem...
        This is true in some ways, but I find it's a lot easier to demand a change in services from the government. They have to be accountable to their voters, and if people are that dissatisfied with it, they can always vote for a government with different policies. The need to make profits can make things really expensive. Back when I lived in BC, I paid $30 a month for power, and I had electric heat and hot water. So basically, I paid that for electricity, heat, AND hot water. It's more expensive now, but I don't know many households that pay more than $80 monthly, and that's considering a pretty high usage. I pay more than that for JUST electricity here. Car insurance was also crazy cheap. I paid between $650 and $850 annually (depending on the city...it was more expensive when I moved to a city with a higher accident rate) for comprehensive insurance, which included coverage for theft and damage, roadside assistance, rental assistance, etc. Oh, and I was a new driver who drove a relatively new sports car. Basically, that rate was the highest rate you could pay. I don't drive here, but I think I'd miss those kinds of rates if I did.

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        Originally posted by Briton View Post
        You don't get sent to prison for not buying a TV license, you are supposedly breaking the law of you watch live TV without a TV license. Very, very few people get caught and even fewer are prosecuted. The answer is: watch catch up tv, available for most channels, particularly the BBC who try and enforce the TV license. I can't see it lasting much longer, what with Netflix, Amazon Prime, 4OD and torrenting. It's just not viable. Either the BBC will have to go private or start justifying the TV license with better use of money, because at the moment it is currently NOT doing that. BBC shows very little of any quality, most of that is on BBC4 in my opinion! But yeah, I'd say we are under a fair amount of financial oppression, just not social oppression.
        BBC shows little of quality? Pretty much all of my favourite shows come from the BBC. I'd pay the license for Doctor Who alone. If it privatizes, you can forget the insightful documentaries, ridiculously weird comedies, and amazingly creative programs it churns out, or has churned out in the past. They have more free reign than any private network ever could, because they don't have to care about what advertisers think. The best you could hope for is that it would become a pay network, and then you'd still have to pay to subscribe to it.

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          #64
          Re: Communism!

          If you think the BBC is bad programming you obviously have never watched American television.

          Comment

            #65
            Re: Communism!

            I care not for Doctor Who. You both seem to be reading 'little of quality' as 'nothing of quality' which isn't true. They have some great documentaries, and some terrible ones, and I really don't get the fascination with Doctor Who.

            Like I said, loose the TV license or start using it properly. You don't care because you don't have to fund the panel shows and public voting shows and other crap they put on. I can't remember the last time I watched BBC live, actually, and I STILL have to pay a license fee to watch everything else. If privatization is so bad, why does ITV and Channel 4 frequently make shows that blow BBC out of the water? (Broadchurch; Dispatches; Film4 productions such as This Is England (what was the last decent BBC film?). Sure, they make David Attenborough docus, but they also give airtime to Neil Oliver and the insufferable Jago Cooper. It's a mixed bag, and considering I can get mixed bags without having to pay for them, why pay for the BBC? They have shown they are no longer responsible with our money and are becoming complacent by using the law to enforce it. There shouldn't be a law which favours a broadcaster. That's just unethical.
            I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
            Or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
            But that day you know I left my money
            And I thought of you only
            All that copper glowing fine

            Comment

              #66
              Re: Communism!

              Because you don't like a show that millions of other people enjoy a channels has low quality programming? Top Gear, which is the most watched program in the world, must also be of little quality. It must be horrible not having to watch advertisements as well. Yeah, just get rid of the BBC as it is oppressing you so much.

              Comment

                #67
                Re: Communism!

                If you hadn't noticed, the BBC cancelled Top Gear. Entertaining as it may be, Top Gear was very low brow and puerile. Appealed to the lowest common denominator. If you don't agree you have clearly never watched it.

                You can judge me when you're here being told you can't watch any live TV, BBC or not, without funding the profligate BBC. Even people who work for the BBC say they waste money so cram it.
                Last edited by MaskedOne; 24 Dec 2015, 07:03.
                I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
                Or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
                But that day you know I left my money
                And I thought of you only
                All that copper glowing fine

                Comment

                  #68
                  Re: Communism!

                  Originally posted by Briton View Post
                  You can judge me when you're here being told you can't watch any live TV, BBC or not, without funding the profligate BBC. Even people who work for the BBC say they waste money so cram it.
                  Virtually everyone has got a TV these days, so the BBC licence fee just looks like another bit of general taxation.
                  Once a man, like the sea I raged;
                  Once a woman, like the earth I gave;
                  And there is in fact more earth than sea.
                  Genesis lyric

                  Comment

                    #69
                    Re: Communism!

                    Originally posted by Porpoise View Post
                    Virtually everyone has got a TV these days, so the BBC licence fee just looks like another bit of general taxation.
                    Considering the millions it rakes in, it should be a lot better.
                    I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
                    Or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
                    But that day you know I left my money
                    And I thought of you only
                    All that copper glowing fine

                    Comment

                      #70
                      Re: Communism!

                      I'm re-opening this.

                      Briton, one of your posts and several posts referencing it are gone. This is your freebie. If I remove more posts for direct inults then I will be infracting their owner for every post I delete. Three such infractions within 10 days equal a vacation from the forum.
                      life itself was a lightsaber in his hands; even in the face of treachery and death and hopes gone cold, he burned like a candle in the darkness. Like a star shining in the black eternity of space.

                      Yoda: Dark Rendezvous

                      "But those men who know anything at all about the Light also know that there is a fierceness to its power, like the bare sword of the law, or the white burning of the sun." Suddenly his voice sounded to Will very strong, and very Welsh. "At the very heart, that is. Other things, like humanity, and mercy, and charity, that most good men hold more precious than all else, they do not come first for the Light. Oh, sometimes they are there; often, indeed. But in the very long run the concern of you people is with the absolute good, ahead of all else..."

                      John Rowlands, The Grey King by Susan Cooper

                      "You come from the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve", said Aslan. "And that is both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth; be content."

                      Aslan, Prince Caspian by CS Lewis


                      Comment

                        #71
                        Re: Communism!

                        When I had a TV, I had cable and of the 240 channels and 24 hour programs there was only four channels and seven programs that I watched. I don't have a TV any more and I have an emergency radio to use in the event of an emergency. I have a radio in my car that is always off. I get news through several internet news services and a local neighborhood news site. I do have a phone, it plugs into the wall, though for a long time I didn't have the phone, only internet connection. I don't own a cell phone and don't use "social" media. I am not afraid of technology but I don't need the "information" web that most people live with. I do just fine relying on my work and hobbies to keep me busy.
                        The Dragon sees infinity and those it touches are forced to feel the reality of it.
                        I am his student and his partner. He is my guide and an ominous friend.

                        Comment

                          #72
                          Re: Communism!

                          How do you think democracy in communist China has worked out? Or the old USSR? Or Cuba? It hasn't. Why do you think that, even though China or rather the "people's republic of China" has gone to more of a capitalist economy? Because their old economy tanked. Look at them now. They basically lead the world in GDP. Also if total communism, which is supposed to be the people's way, worked why are all of the people in charge of these communist countries the elites? Why doesn't the common man have a say in policy or even have a chance to rise in political importance? Because the communism of today was and will never be for the common man. As in all political structures it is about the elite.

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                          "There has never been a Communist Country. They were Socialist with a Communist party in charge but they were not Communist."

                          Socialism is the first step toward communism. Read the Communist Manifesto and you will see that Marx talked about this. It was to be the beginning of the end of the capitalist way of life. But in practice it never materialized.

                          Comment

                            #73
                            Re: Communism!

                            The idea of fairness is a utopian idea. It will never come to fruition. With that said why do you have a problem with the rich getting richer? It is their money after all. In fact since the rich are the ones that risk their capital in adventures why then should they not see a return on the investment?

                            Comment

                              #74
                              Re: Communism!

                              Then I guess you see no problem with the continuing transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10%. It is their money after all. Why shouldn't they use it to ruin everyone else?

                              Comment

                                #75
                                Re: Communism!

                                Originally posted by Taulmaril View Post
                                The idea of fairness is a utopian idea. It will never come to fruition. With that said why do you have a problem with the rich getting richer? It is their money after all. In fact since the rich are the ones that risk their capital in adventures why then should they not see a return on the investment?
                                The reason I have a problem with the rich getting richer is that it is almost always done on the backs of the poor.
                                www.thewolfenhowlepress.com


                                Phantom Turnips never die.... they just get stewed occasionally....

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