Broadband TAX!!??

[jgrabham]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/nbroad111.xml

Read this in the paper this morning.


Now thats a stealth tax and an arf.

:(

[Tux.Ice]

i know, like WTF!!!

[fatality_uk]

Yet ANOTHER F*****G reasons I am packing up my belongings and leaving dear old blighty. Having been fortunate enough to live in many wonderful countries in the World, I feel I have given the UK it's last chance this last 4 years.

Long hours, avg wages, poor work life balance, i could go on. The UK is losing qualified, technical people at an alarming rate, and then people ask why!!! lol

Just have to decide, Australia, USA, Europe!

[daverich]

it *is* in the telegraph though....

Kind regards

Dave rich

[Mazza558]

Yet ANOTHER F*****G reasons I am packing up my belongings and leaving dear old blighty. Having been fortunate enough to live in many wonderful countries in the World, I feel I have given the UK it's last chance this last 4 years.

Long hours, avg wages, poor work life balance, i could go on. The UK is losing qualified, technical people at an alarming rate, and then people ask why!!! lol

Just have to decide, Australia, USA, Europe!

Australia but not New Zealand?

[BuffaloX]

Very stupid idea...
We have something similarly stupid in Denmark called medialicense, which means you have to pay for TV services if you have Internet. :^o

Last I heard both Sweden and Germany are planning on doing the same.

[hkgonra]

Long hours, avg wages, poor work life balance, i could go on. The UK is losing qualified, technical people at an alarming rate, and then people ask why!!! lol

Just have to decide, Australia, USA, Europe!

I have never been to the UK but from what I have heard from others that live there the work/life balance is GREAT compared to the US.
I have heard about 4 day work weeks and 12 weeks vacation annually from many people and assumed that was the norm.
By US standards that is barely working at all.

[BuffaloX]

I have never been to the UK but from what I have heard from others that live there the work/life balance is GREAT compared to the US.
I have heard about 4 day work weeks and 12 weeks vacation annually from many people and assumed that was the norm.
By US standards that is barely working at all.

Yeah US goods should be taxed in EU for social dumping....

[picopir8]

Yet ANOTHER F*****G reasons I am packing up my belongings and leaving dear old blighty. Having been fortunate enough to live in many wonderful countries in the World, I feel I have given the UK it's last chance this last 4 years.

Long hours, avg wages, poor work life balance, i could go on. The UK is losing qualified, technical people at an alarming rate, and then people ask why!!! lol

Just have to decide, Australia, USA, Europe!

The grass is no greener in the US. Many manufacturing jobs went to Mexico/Asia, many technical jobs are going to India/China. Most service jobs are staffed by illegal immigrants. Many employers are overworking their employees (50+hrs/week). Benefits shrink every year. Healthcare is expensive as heck. The dollar is very weak, salaries have stagnated over much of the last decade. The housing market continues to spiral downward. And we have some of the worst crime of any first world nation.

On the bright side, we have no broadband tax so I guess life aint all bad.

[smoker]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/11/nbroad111.xml
Read this in the paper this morning.
Now thats a stealth tax and an arf.
:(

why the hell should broadband users subsidise failing tv media, what incentive does that give them to make better programmes to attract viewers.

and it is time the bbc stood on it's own feet as well, why should people that rarely watch it, or use it's services, have to spend £140+ per annum to keep their top management in chauffeur driven limos and all their other 'snout-in-the-trough' benefits?
:(

[LaRoza]

The grass is no greener in the US. Many manufacturing jobs went to Mexico/Asia, many technical jobs are going to India/China. Most service jobs are staffed by illegal immigrants. Many employers are overworking their employees (50+hrs/week). Benefits shrink every year. Healthcare is expensive as heck. The dollar is very weak, salaries have stagnated over much of the last decade. The housing market continues to spiral downward. And we have some of the worst crime of any first world nation.

On the bright side, we have no broadband tax so I guess life aint all bad.

What?

Outsourcing is a problem, yes. Illegal immigrants are not the "most" in anything. Healthcare isn't free, but then, taxes are not as high as other places. The dollar is not very weak, it is weaker than it was, but it isn't kindling. The housing market depends on what your perspective is, it is a great time to buy a house if you have good credit. The worst crime? The USA has hot spots of crime, but don't generalize the entire nation. My city is very safe and relatively crime free. (Last year, a homeless man stabbed another over something stupid, and broke our years long streak of no homicides)

[BuffaloX]

why the hell should broadband users subsidise failing tv media, what incentive does that give them to make better programmes to attract viewers.

and it is time the bbc stood on it's own feet as well, why should people that rarely watch it, or use it's services, have to spend £140+ per annum to keep their top management in chauffeur driven limos and all their other 'snout-in-the-trough' benefits?
:(

Hear hear,
Except in Denmark it's more like 215 £

[hkgonra]

What?

Outsourcing is a problem, yes. Illegal immigrants are not the "most" in anything. Healthcare isn't free, but then, taxes are not as high as other places. The dollar is not very weak, it is weaker than it was, but it isn't kindling. The housing market depends on what your perspective is, it is a great time to buy a house if you have good credit. The worst crime? The USA has hot spots of crime, but don't generalize the entire nation. My city is very safe and relatively crime free. (Last year, a homeless man stabbed another over something stupid, and broke our years long streak of no homicides)


Not trying to be too nosy laroza but what part of the country do you live in ?

[mips]

Not trying to be too nosy laroza but what part of the country do you live in ?

Somewhere in the Quaker State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania), USA, would be my guess?

[picopir8]

What?

Outsourcing is a problem, yes. Illegal immigrants are not the "most" in anything. Healthcare isn't free, but then, taxes are not as high as other places. The dollar is not very weak, it is weaker than it was, but it isn't kindling. The housing market depends on what your perspective is, it is a great time to buy a house if you have good credit. The worst crime? The USA has hot spots of crime, but don't generalize the entire nation. My city is very safe and relatively crime free. (Last year, a homeless man stabbed another over something stupid, and broke our years long streak of no homicides)

The dollar is doing much better than the post WWI Mark, but it is still down:
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/US/M

For the crime statistics, go to http://www.nationmaster.com and look up any crime. The US is in the top 10 for most of the per-capita crime stats (and usually only beaten by countries in South/Central America and Africa). If you live in a safe city I suspect that is the exception rather than the norm.

Again if you look at nationmaster and compare the number of days until tax freedom day, you will see that the the US is number 13 so the taxes are high compared to much of the world. Higher than many countries that provide free healthcare.

And while I may have generalize the illegal immigrant issue, I can state that can tell you that I can walk into almost any restaurant in any area of the country and find a bussperson who does not speak english. The same is true for cleaning crews, and many residential construction crews. While they may be legal residents, I find it difficult to believe that there was a sudden rush of legal immigrants to those careers, the same careers where employees are generally paid under the table.

[LaRoza]

Not trying to be too nosy laroza but what part of the country do you live in ?

Scranton, Pennsylvania


Somewhere in the Quaker State (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania), USA, would be my guess?
If that is a guess, it is very good. Although I have stated I live in PA many times on the forum.



For the crime statistics, go to http://www.nationmaster.com and look up any crime. The US is in the top 10 for most of the per-capita crime stats (and usually only beaten by countries in South/Central America and Africa). If you live in a safe city I suspect that is the exception rather than the norm.


Most of the crime is focused in specific parts of certain cities, and the majority of it is related to drugs. Maybe legalising drugs, or something is the answer, I don't know. By "safe city" do you mean there is no crime in the city? Then that would be rare.

I don't know where you are from, but you either live in a rough place or are not in the USA. I can assure you, the USA as a whole is safe. The high crime statistics are limited to hot spots. Even in the Cities with high crime, it is limited to certain areas.

[altariel]

Very stupid idea...
We have something similarly stupid in Denmark called medialicense, which means you have to pay for TV services if you have Internet. :^o
Last I heard both Sweden and Germany are planning on doing the same.

I really am thinking of going to sue them for that - especially if they want to get the SAME FRICKIN' 2000 SEK per year from me for that ...

Because -they- decide to put stuff from SVT on the internet they really CANNOT reason that because ALL folks "with broadband connection" " have the TECHNICAL MEANS" to watch their CRAP ALL BROADBAND USERS should pay ...
That would mean that they would have to get people GLOBALLY to pay this fee ...
Which I don't think is possible ...

I have nothing to lose ...

I haven't anything against a _SMALL_ fee around 20 SEK monthly drawn as a swedish tax FROM ALL or something for keeping SOME "public service" alive but am NOT going to pay 2000 SEK annually for services I don't use, have no intentition of using AT ALL ...

I threw out my (borrowed) TV-set YEARS ago and am not at all interested in 99% of the CRAP aired in ANY TV-channel ...

I still say they should create subscriptions with fees if -they- want to make stuff available on the internet ...

[bash]

I don't know where you are from, but you either live in a rough place or are not in the USA. I can assure you, the USA as a whole is safe. The high crime statistics are limited to hot spots. Even in the Cities with high crime, it is limited to certain areas.

The US does have though an extremly high number of people in prisons compared to other western countries. Actually the US has the highest numbers of prisoners in absolute numbers and per percentage of the population.

Looked up some figures and it said:

US: Over 2.2 Million in jail
China: 1.5 Million
Russia: 870.000

(Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1209-01.htm | Reuters)

And per 100.000 people:

US: 738 in jail
Russia: 611 in jail

(Source: http://nicic.org/Library/022140)

According to Wikipedia the average for other western countries is around 100.

Other sources:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/law/research/icps/worldbrief/wpb_stats.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate )

I don't live in the US so I can't interpret these statistics or talk about causes, but I just found these numbers to be astonishingly high.

[barbedsaber]

Just have to decide, Australia, USA, Europe!

its nice down here.

[BobLand]

The US has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. I'd suspect that the majority of these crimes are drug related on both the end user and seller sides.

If drugs (whatever that means) were legal, regulated and reasonably taxed, crime would probably diminish by 80%.

I also live in a very safe, clean city. It is a small city under one million but a city with a concerned community and virtually no yuppies or homelessness. Cities like this exist all across America.

Unfortunately, the average Joe does not pay attention so reckless lawmakers pass unreasonable restrictions on everything.

[GCoffee]

I don't like to say it, but the way things are going for the british goverment and economy at the moment, I wouldn't be suprised if they taxed you on broadband.. There might be a dialup revoloution.. LOL.

As far as I am concerened the british goverment (labour *coughs* fools - I mean party) will tax you for walking out your own front door.. Or do they already do that? Walking Tax.

I have two words to say about this:
Jog On.

It is never going to happen - unless of course the goverment want on of the following to happen to the prime ministers house - 10 downing street:

1) Bombed
2) Broken down by a angry mob
3) destroyed in a *accidental* fire
4) Shot At
5) Vandalised..

I'm pretty certain if this happened then the whole of britan would become hackers to evade broadband tax..

Also, would this apply to a american ISP like AOL?

Rant over..

Cheers,
GCoffee.

bump

[lisati]

WTF? There used to be a TV license in the UK, didn't there? I know the NZ government scrapped our one a few years back.

[lancest]

Way too many rules for me in US. Very hard to save money there -even on a higher salary. US has frightened off most manufacturing so less opportunities exist. Depends on who you are- but I believe the US has seen better days for the avg joe. It's ironic to that I see more opportunity and personal freedoms elsewhere.