It's purpose was to build TV infrastructure in the '30s.

Most countries in Europe have a TV licence to fund public broadcasting.

We despise it but no government has had the balls to abolish it.

It gets worse. Go to youtube and watch these people try and often succeed in bullying into peoples homes to check their tvs and make sure they're not receiving broadcasts of any kind. I did a major project on this and for most americans it sounds like a joke when they first hear it. They actually used vans and this propoganda that the vans could detect if you were using a tv. Going back to like the 70s at least. They drove around these vans with all this monitoring equipment and antennaes to scare people into paying the tax.

Its almost time, here's to striving forward in the new year! Happy new year brothers.