Has there ever been a PM sent home in Finland?

[Rick1]

Sorry but that Matti Vanhanen is not from this world. I am irritated already long time by his dishonesty and escapades but now he really has done it. He wants everybody to pay that Yle vero (I pay already) and the ones that do not want to pay he wants to see a written explanation why they do not need to pay (you do not watch anything anywhere)

How is this casanova going to control this? The Finns are wasting soo much time on this subject while they should already two years ago put it in the taxes and see how much they save on all that bureaucracy.

[Jukka Aho]

Has there ever been a PM sent home in Finland?

Well, Vanhanen got the job, in the first place, only because the previous PM had to step down...
 

[Rick1]

Thanks Jukka I knew we could trust our walking encyclopedia

But it really has been drama these last years with him. I think they can scrap that whole Keskusta and put it in Kokoomus, this will save us a lot of tax money because in my opinion 100 seats are more than enough in that parlement.

[ajdias]

Let me get this right: this government has been doing poorly, to put it benignly, and Vanhanen has barely managed to keep afloot and you take issue with Vanhanen escapades and a new proposal that could reduce the number of those not paying the YLE-tax* and expect him to have adopted a measure two years ago that is very controversial?
I agree with you, but it's still controversial.

*If people are asked to state that they do not use YLE services fewer are likely to actively lie. Nowadays you just need to passively ignore the issue. If this goes ahead will take a bit more of effort and commitment to avoid the tax.

[Rick1]

Not totally right, I mean they are discussing already at least 2 years about this issue but because there are all politicians in the board of Yle nothing sensible comes out of it. Two years ago was still good time in Finland, they should have put it in the taxes and for my part I pay ,25 percent more tax but nobody will feel that and we do not need a whole organisation to controll the ones that forget to pay (as did many politicians)

[Upphew]

If people are asked to state that they do not use YLE services fewer are likely to actively lie. Nowadays you just need to passively ignore the issue. If this goes ahead will take a bit more of effort and commitment to avoid the tax.

Well you will deed to ignore their mail, lie to their phonedrones/not answer them, lie to the inspectors/not open door to them... i'd say that it is not so much more effort to sign statement that you won't use yle's services.

[Rick1]

That idea of signing is uncontrollable and really an idea of somebody who has lost touch. Is Vanhanen going to sleep next to you and hold your hand all day that you do not find something to watch or listen to Yle?

[ajdias]

Well you will deed to ignore their mail, lie to their phonedrones/not answer them, lie to the inspectors/not open door to them... i'd say that it is not so much more effort to sign statement that you won't use yle's services.

It's not about effort, it's about commitment. People would act differently if they faced a different dilemma - pay or ignore vs pay or lie outright now with you name undersigned.
The lies are (re)actions to cover for the lack of payment - once the decision is made people will act accordingly and will go to great lengths to be consistent with their past actions.
I am just deriving these conclusions from cognitive studies and experiences that I have read in books like this (lookup The Context of Our Character, Part 1 Why We Are Dishonest, and What We Can Do About It).
I'd love to hear from someone that actually knows about this stuff.

[ajdias]

Not totally right, I mean they are discussing already at least 2 years about this issue but because there are all politicians in the board of Yle nothing sensible comes out of it. Two years ago was still good time in Finland, they should have put it in the taxes and for my part I pay ,25 percent more tax but nobody will feel that and we do not need a whole organisation to controll the ones that forget to pay (as did many politicians)

I don't think I've seen it as a serious option (we're talking about YLE getting it's money straight from the budget, right), people always bring the holy cow of independence of media as if that could not be assured (it is in Holland) or the current model wasn't permeable to influences.

[Jukka Aho]

I don't think I've seen it as a serious option (we're talking about YLE getting it's money straight from the budget, right), people always bring the holy cow of independence of media as if that could not be assured (it is in Holland) or the current model wasn't permeable to influences.

Politicians don’t seem to want that... the general public has actually been warming up to the idea, lately. (Then again, the other half would just happily ignore the entire “public service” aspect and wants to see YLE turned into yet another commercial TV broadcaster, with the money collected via ads or subscription-based viewing cards.)