Just to clarify.
In the UK we do not have to pay anything to OWN a car or TV. We do have to pay to USE one. You can have as many cars as you like and if they are not on the public roads you don't have to pay a bean. In a nice gesture to the classic car folk, all vehicles earlier than 1973 are free to use on the road.
The problem with TVs is that the licensing authorities tend to assume you have a TV and send threatening letters if you don't have a licence. If you genuinely don't have TV it can be quite hard to get them off your back. The ultimate method would be to tell the to £$%$ off and let them take you to court.
The history of the licence fee is long and controversial. Originally the govenment took a hefty slice. This grdually reduced until now when the BBC gets the lot except for the cost of collection. We are now close to the point in a multichannel age where the licence fee is untenable as a means of funding the BBC. Unfortunately nobody has come up with a beter way. Maybe it's a bit like democracy - it's the worst possible system, except for all the others that have been tried.
Talking of democracy, Tom Lehrer wrote this in the 1960s.
http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/t/toml...nes185498.html