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GreenCardSeeker
06-30-2009, 06:56 AM
I was a bit surprised when I compared the budgets for the Swedish state TV with the budgets for PBS/NPR in the US. The state TV here alone has an income of 0.5 billion dollars / year from forcing a fee of $250/year on everyone that can recieve TV, and when radio is included as well, the total budget is almost $1 billion/year. From what I've been able to gather, PBS/NPR have a combined budget of something like 4-500 million dollars.. And this is even though the US has a 35 times larger population.

It would be really interesting to see how Americans would feel if they were forced to pay $250/year for PBS/NPR so that it could have a total national budget of $20 billion. Swedes sure put up with a lot of stuff..

Now you know one of the real reasons why left-wingers love Sweden.. It's not the healthcare lines, it's not the free universities that people that can afford better education avoid.. It's the control of media. A state TV feeding people with propaganda, press support to make up for losses for newspapers and hate laws for dissidents.. What more could they ask for?

From the figures I've gathered, it seems like CNN and Fox news both have about $1 billion in income each.. "Public service" here in this relatively small country matches that amount through taxes.

Maybe a translation is in order:

Public service = state propaganda
Public good = bureaucrats ripping off taxpayers

I can't believe there isn't more satire made about this crazy little country.. There's so much material to work from. Maybe I should try putting up some more satire on Youtube myself.

Edit: Almost forgot one fact: The state TV here has a larger budget than all of private-owned TV and radio combined.

acptulsa
06-30-2009, 08:19 AM
I hope you get that green card, Atlas. You sound more than ready to shrug it off and come join us! It would be good to have you here, too.

Meanwhile, thank you for the updates from Utopian Hell...