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From: gnu@l5.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.legal
Subject: Driving as a right or privilege / "for your own good"
Message-ID: <193@l5.uucp>
Date: Sun, 13-Oct-85 18:46:06 EDT
Article-I.D.: l5.193
Posted: Sun Oct 13 18:46:06 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Oct-85 05:14:00 EDT
Organization: Ell-Five [Consultants], San Francisco
Lines: 27
Xref: linus net.flame:11407 net.legal:2089

I feel I must register my opposition to the idea that it's OK for the
government to force me to do things for my own good or to keep
insurance rates down.  Mandatory seat belts or helmets or insurance is
a good example.  Much of this kind of this kind of nonsense has
occurred in the automobile area because the government co-opted
automobile transportation early in its development.  One account I read
said that the original reason for introducing auto registration and
licensing was that criminals were finding it too easy to flee and
escape, which was not as possible on horses.  (Horses were not
regulated by the state (to my knowledge), though there were usually
*local* laws on stables, street sanitation, etc.)  I pray that the
traditionally shortsighted computer industry does not allow the
government to co-opt computer usage (or networking) too.  It's a good
thing you don't need a license to buy or use phone service, though it's
certainly true that criminals can confer and plan and communicate
through phones.  Computers hold much of the same promise (for criminals
as well as us regular folks who only break 10 laws a week or so).

I believe that driving should be a right, not a privilege, and that it
should require due process to take it away, like the right to vote.  Do
you want to take taxis to work for a year because you forgot
to pay a couple of speeding tickets and didn't want to waste
a few days in court?  (I cynically note that they make it very
easy to just pay them and very hard to challenge the cop in court,
e.g. you have to show up in person to schedule the court date and then
you have to show up and spend the day waiting until they call your 
case.  Of course it's for THEIR convenience; they hold a monopoly.)