Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!lll-winken!taurus!huxley!jxxl
From: jxxl@huxley.cs.nps.navy.mil (John Locke)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: OUTLAW ALL DATABASES!!  Damn right!
Message-ID: <1707@huxley.cs.nps.navy.mil>
Date: 29 Nov 90 21:52:21 GMT
References: <7425@hub.ucsb.edu> <5140@rsiatl.UUCP>
Reply-To: jxxl@taurus.cs.nps.navy.mil (John Locke)
Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA
Lines: 27

In article <> jgd@rsiatl.UUCP (John G. DeArmond) writes:

> While we're on the subject, perhaps you could explain why it is 
> right for the insurance company to raise your rate based on 
> your falling victim to the random revenue collection process called
> speeding tickets?  Why should they be allowed to profit from the
> state's dubious taxation system?

An underlying principle here seems to be that data collection serves multiple
purposes, not all of which are apparent. In this example, you are stopped for
speeding, the data that identifies you and your vehicle serve as input to the
process which has the ostensible purpose of controlling speed on the roads.
As you point out, John, the process has the secondary purpose of collecting
revenue. In this state, at least, you are submitting to yet another hidden
purpose. Whenever you are pulled over for an infraction, no matter how minor,
the officer calls in your data to the state capital and a database search is
done to determine whether you have any outstanding arrest warrants. In effect,
you are part of a random spot check of the population for wanted criminals.
Contrast this with another kind of spot check, one in which you are stopped as
you enter a shopping mall and forced to wait while your data is phoned in. You
are outraged. The procedure is challenged in court at the first opportunity.
The difference between the two methods is that in the first you are just the
slightest bit guilty and so you submit to their procedure rather than make
things worse for yourself. Guilt is an instrument of control on the side of
the road, as debt is an instrument of control in the financial world. Once you
accept their procedures, you belong to them.
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