audio cassette -> CD?

… and share with Obama

We don't have taxes on TVs. We have taxes on the gasoline tax but not on TV.

Until January, you had to pay a fee if you own at least one TV or radio to fund the federal stations which in turn don't have to broadcast all those exiting commercials and can concentrate on nocturia commercials. Now you need to pay this fee when owning your own household. It's officially a separate household if you have a sink, a toilet and a stove so you can watch TV or listen to radio stations with those pieces of furniture!

{Formal warning for not only using inappropriate language but trying to bypass the censored list - CM}

Each household. A group of any number of people who share kitchen, sink and toilet.

In the past, anybody who owns a TV or radio had to pay so within a family, one person or a couple had to own all devices or pay more than once.

Once when I had moved, I didn't bother to install a TV for a few years so I cancelled my payments which released a bunch of GEZ (GebührenEinzugsZentrale = fee retraction central) henchmen on me. You can't really cancel, you can either move or let them know you have died. I also had switched my car cassette-radio to an "ancient" cassette only machine which was supposed to connect to a radio but had its own amp for additional rear speakers.
So first I had got an overdue notice. I told them I don't use a TV or radio.
Then I had got a letter that I own a car so I must pay for the car radio. I told them that I don't have a radio in my car.
Then I had got a letter that they have seen my car radio. I told them it's not a radio.
After a while, there was someone standing in front of my house asking if I would have time for him. And I always said "no". But eventually I had him have a closer look to the car "radio". When the summer came, I had barred him from my house so he had to wait in the hot sun instead of the entrance. The next month he was gone but then someone else started to ring my doorbell on Saturday mornings. Not able to tell that one apart from the mailman, I gave up and had let him in. There he saw a Commodore128 and told me that I have to pay for this computer since I could visit the websites of the federal TV and radio stations taking advantage of their services. I had thrown him out and he had promissed to return with the police - which had never happened. But he had occasionally returned asking if I would let him in again. Until I had put a cast iron coal shovel behind the door and asked him if he likes a free blow on the head instead.

When they stopped demanding a fee for computers which might or might not be able to visit federal TV/radio websites, I fixed my old TV and had started to pay my fees again.

I like that. - but I am sure they will decide he OWES lots of child support.

They do it different here. here, health insurance is a private business, wherein you gamble a set amount, in my case about $12,000 per year. (for perspective, the minimum wage job gives gross pay of around $18000 per year) that your medical costs for the year will be greater than that plus your deductible and co-pays. my deductible is $5000 per year which means that since my wife's annual healthcare costs are well over $18,000 per year, I am better off with insurance than without. counting our co-pays, we average $25,000-26,000 per year in healthcare costs. when we think of "child support" we think of money that an absentee parent (usually from a divorce or an out-of-wedlock child) is required to pay to the parent who has the child.

here a Jetta (selected for comparison purposes) will cost you around $15,000-$20,000 (assuming there is around $5000 difference between bottom and top models, as well as variations in price across the country)

With "owning" I mean with taxes, fuel, spare parts and repair costs.

I use up €180 per month in fuel for my daily 30 kilometer commute!

A decent new car costs at least €30,000, then there is spare parts for wear (e.g. tires), annual automobile tax, maintenance (oil changes, etc), safety checks (and repairs) every two years and an incredible "mineral oil" tax plus other taxes on the gasoline and you pay VAT on top of the tax enriched fuel (yes, that's a tax on taxes)! And after 5…7 years, you HAVE to buy a new car because the electronics in those modern cars is due or you get additional high environmental taxes ("stinker tax") for your obsolete engine.

I well remember the EURO-2 emission madness. So most people had bought a diesel since those were considered as clean, fuel efficient and diesel is also cheaper. 3 years later, "they" have discovered "fine dust emissions" and had put an insane tax on cars without a particle filter (which wasn't available until then) and banned classic diesel engines from large cities.
I had kept my "factory upgraded to EURO-1 junker" and tweaked it to save gas and paid the "stinker tax" since I saved more money in gas at the pump than I had to give the government. If my government says it's a stinker, who would blame me if it's really a stinker? They are at the "Euro-5" standard now anyway so the €500 to convert my car to Euro-2 wouldn't have helpöed for long and wouldn't matter any more if "1" or "2". So I drive my own standard.

Same here but the tax becomes a bottomless pit - unless the car turns 30 years old, then you can get an "H" license plate if it's in a condition worthy to conserve (almost "museum quality"), then you pay almost no taxes at all and may enter the environmental zones (banning classic diesel engines and other old vehicles).