GEZ
No, it's not the German version of the candy in the funny dispensers.
No, it's also not the abbreviation for a new, simplified version of the German language designed for foreigners "German EZ".
The GEZ is the "Gebühreneinzugzentrale" - the German broadcasting-tax collection agency.
In Germany, everyone who owns a TV, is required by law to register it with the GEZ and to fork over DM33/$17 per month in broadcasting tax in order to fund public television. I find it eerie that Big Brother must know exactly how many TVs and radios the proletariat owns.
Now, paying the tax isn't worst part. I'm already so numbed by taxes that another few dollars a month can't hurt much. What pisses me off is the barely civilized broadcast tax collection system. Essentially, each time you move, the city registration authority forwards all your info to the GEZ. The GEZ then sends out a trite, impolite letter demanding immediate registration of all TVs and Radios and threatening fines for non-compliance. The main way they get people to comply is through threats and intimidation. They take out nasty, sarcastic ads on TV and in print media in which they threaten to send out their thugs to catch non-payers. Shockingly, they ACTUALLY DO THIS! They have an army of henchmen who are paid on commission who are left to their own devices to catch people with unregistered TVs. Aside from harassing people door-to-door, these sleazeballs aren't above spying in windows or trying to get neighbors to denounce each other! I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like the Stasi to me.
Solution:
The first idea for a solution to this problem is to dump public TV. I never watch it anyway. Commercials never hurt anybody! Okay, so I do recognize the argument that it is important to have an objective source of news that is independent of corporate influence. In that case, a single news channel would suffice and should be paid for through income tax or sales tax or some other existing civilized tax system - not through an intimidation campaign.
Another more civilized collection method would be simply to broadcast everything only via cable or satellite and then just cut the service to those who don't pay! Wow! What a revolutionary idea that would be! Who'd have ever thought of that??!!
One of the most barbaric ad campaigns I have ever seen:
This is an ad from a magazine. I've added the translation.
