Thursday, August 01, 2002

Screw Our Government

Oh, how easily money you earn is taken away from you. Monday, I earned that cool $100 for our improv show. Well, now it’s gone. I somehow magically got a speeding ticket this morning on my way to work. Spectacular. That’s just what I needed, to pay $97 to Dodge county, or whatever county Rochester is in. Come to think of it, I’ve never believed in the stupid speed limit laws and guess what? I’m going to tell you why.

First, the speed limit laws were created when the US was in an energy crunch and oil was getting short. It was found that vehicles consumed less fuel when running at slower speeds so to save energy speed limits were created and enforced. Later on, the energy crunch came to an end. Why didn’t the speed limit laws then go away as well? Because the government found out it was a really easy way to make money. “We’ll only let people drive places so fast so that if they ever are in a hurry or want to get somewhere quickly, we can pull them over and take their money,” is what the government was thinking, “We can just keep using an obsolete law to get an influx of money every year. Why repeal it and let people get places faster when we can make lots of money from it?”

Ok, now I know many people will say that if there wasn’t speed limits everyone would be going way to fast and there would be so many accidents all of the time. True, there might be more accidents, but with that make insurance higher and the people causing the accidents extremely liable and hit them hard. I believe that would possibly make people be a little more safe when they drive. Insurance is already one of the main reasons people hate getting tickets because their premiums rise so much. If you get a couple tickets then your rates skyrocket because as soon as you get speeding tickets, you obviously get into accidents. That’s such a joke, if you ask me. Statistically it might be true that people who routinely get tickets over time are more likely to get into accidents, but just because you get like two or three tickets in a span of a couple years, your rates shouldn’t jump so much as someone who would have gotten them within a period of a month or two.

Also, look at some of the European countries who have done away with speed limits. Hmm….seems to be working fine over there. Are Americans that much worse of drivers that we need to be treated like children when driving? Yes, there are many idiots who drive today, but making consequences for any violations or accidents extremely steep would help to keep them in check. Screw the speed limits. I think they are completely outdated and unnecessary in most cases. If the government actually cared more about what made sense instead of the almighty dollar, we wouldn’t have such ridiculous laws. Enough said on this.

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