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No one cares about online protests or petitions, please. The majority of Germans is against the television protection money. You have to pay this protection mo

by azpk 7y ago

No one cares about online protests or petitions, please. The majority of Germans is against the television protection money. You have to pay this protection money even if you do not own a television, or else you'll be thrown in debtor's prison and your credit score is ruined. The protection money ruled "constitutional" by the Verfassungsgericht. That is how democracy works. So, since you are so informed: What should I do? Found my own party, vote AfD? Neither of these is an actual option for me.

Tainnor 7y ago
I don't think you understand how representative democracy works. It very well may be that the majority of the people rejects the Rundfunkbeitrag. But it clearly isn't very important to those people, otherwise they would create a single-issue party and vote that party in. In a representative democracy, people decide what party or candidate represents them best and vote for them. Nobody expects to be asked about every issue. If you want to change that, you could move to Switzerland, where voters actually do regularly vote on issues, but be warned, that that system comes with its own set of disadvantages. Also noteworthy: the Swiss people recently voted on whether to keep the equivalent of the Rundfunkgebühr, and they overwhelmingly said yes, as soon as they realised how much they would otherwise lose; you see, it's one thing to claim you're against something when asked randomly during some survey, it's another to actually go and vote against it once you know your opinion matters and you've had some time reviewing the pros and cons. By the way, I don't own a car and I still have to pay money for streets; I don't have children and have to pay for school; and I've never received unemployment benefits, yet have to pay for it. I don't complain about any of that because I think having public goods is a good thing. You've asked me what I think you should do. I've outlined a lot of things in my previous post. That none of these is an "actual option" for you or that you think people won't care about your cause is not a failure of democracy. Nobody ever said that change is easy.

by azpk 7y ago

Tainnor 7y ago

I don't think you understand how representative democracy works. It very well may be that the majority of the people rejects the Rundfunkbeitrag. But it clearly isn't very important to those people, otherwise they would create a single-issue party and vote that party in. In a representative democracy, people decide what party or candidate represents them best and vote for them. Nobody expects to be asked about every issue. If you want to change that, you could move to Switzerland, where voters actually do regularly vote on issues, but be warned, that that system comes with its own set of disadvantages. Also noteworthy: the Swiss people recently voted on whether to keep the equivalent of the Rundfunkgebühr, and they overwhelmingly said yes, as soon as they realised how much they would otherwise lose; you see, it's one thing to claim you're against something when asked randomly during some survey, it's another to actually go and vote against it once you know your opinion matters and you've had some time reviewing the pros and cons. By the way, I don't own a car and I still have to pay money for streets; I don't have children and have to pay for school; and I've never received unemployment benefits, yet have to pay for it. I don't complain about any of that because I think having public goods is a good thing. You've asked me what I think you should do. I've outlined a lot of things in my previous post. That none of these is an "actual option" for you or that you think people won't care about your cause is not a failure of democracy. Nobody ever said that change is easy.