Land Of The Entitled

Did you hear about the guy in Colorado who was using some electronic gadget to change red lights to green when he approached them? This was making all of the news shows as one of the kind of "lighter story" moments. He had this device for about two years and was caught because he was causing major traffic problems with it, all so he could cut about 15 minutes off his commute. A camera was set up to find out why traffic at a particular intersection was badly backed up at roughly the same time every day. The cost of equipment and man hours to finally catch this guy was not cheap. So what was his punishment? A $50 fine. That's right, a guy who for two years caused major traffic congestion and lengthened other people's commutes just so he didn't have to wait at a few stop lights, with a device he knew to be illegal, got a penalty of less than an average parking ticket. And in the interview pieces I've seen of him he pretty much laughs about it, even talking about how he would see other drivers look frustrated when having to stop after their light short-changed them. Now transportation officials have to spend thousands of dollars to fix the lights so unauthorized people can't do this again. And this guy only has to pay a 50-buck fine. Combine that with the $100 he paid for the device on eBay and for a measly $150 he cut 15 minutes off his commute each day (each direction I believe) for two years. I don't think he has any reason to have learned his lesson. And the news anchors laughed about it and commented how that's not a bad rate of return on an investment, meaning saving that much time over two years for only $150.

You want to know why other countries hate Americans? It's attitudes like this. "I want to do it and I'm going to do it no matter who it affects, fuck everybody else." And this attitude only gets reinforced by our government and society. The reaction I see from most people about this is "I wish I thought of it," instead of rightfully thinking this guy's a jerk. And then he gets a little slap on the wrist for "punishment." You know what I think should have been done to this guy? First, I would have made him pay the entire cost of the investigation that had to be done to catch him as well as the amount it will cost to secure the lights against this happening again (which, like I said, is in the thousands) and I would have suspended his license for the same amount of time that he was getting away with it. That's right, take away his drivers' license for two years. People I say this to think that's too harsh, but why? How many hours of time did he cost other people over the last two years? How many emergency vehicles got caught in traffic because of him during this time? How much more gas was burned and exhaust put into the air because of traffic congestion caused by this guy? But somehow taking away his "right" to drive is too harsh? Forgive me if I think he gave up that right when he refused to follow the rules.

It is that sense of entitlement in this country that has led us to this lack of real consequences for what we do. There isn't a penalty for traffic violations out there that is as harsh as it should be. Punishment for bad driving is used to raise money instead of actually attempting to change behavior. Speeding will get someone anywhere from about 50 to a couple hundred dollars in fines. Things like turning from the wrong lane or not using your signal or turning on red when it's not allowed will get even less, and often you don't get pulled over for that at all (unless you're black of course). Things like using your cell phone, eating, playing with your radio or smoking while you drive (things that are found to the cause of most accidents) aren't even against the law in most places. Hell, even getting caught driving under the influence only gets you a short suspension in most places on your first offense.

I say if we were serious about making our roads safer, which we don't seem to be even though traffic accidents are pretty much the leading cause of death and injury, we would make some real penalties. How about losing your license for two weeks on your first speeding ticket, and three months on your second? After that, a whole year. Don't you think we'd see a big difference on the freeways with those kind of penalties? And I would double those punishments in school zones and residential neighborhoods. Drunk driving would start with a three year suspension and move up to a permanent loss of license on the second strike. It's time for us to stop screwing around when it comes to this. A kid caught with a bag of weed can serve jail time, but not a guy hurling a 2,000 pound piece of metal on wheels down the road at 100 miles an hour? Which of those things is more dangerous to the general public?

And this won't happen in this country because of our misguided sense of entitlement. "Sammy Hagar doesn't have to drive 55 so why should I?" "My new Lexus can go 175 mph, why shouldn't I drive it that fast every once and a while?"

I mentioned to someone yesterday that I thought it should be a law that cars sold in this country shouldn't be allowed to be able to go faster than 75 mph and she acted like I just said that we should outlaw babies. No telling how she would have reacted if I had told her my real dream is that cars get outlawed and we rip up the interstate system and spend all of the highway money on a real national passenger rail network and transit systems in every city that rival the ones in London, Paris, and New York. She was not able to come up with one good reason why cars shouldn't be limited in speed capability by law. There is no state where it is legal to drive faster than 75, so what is the legitimate need for a car that can go 150 or more? She couldn't say anything but that it wasn't a good idea even though she couldn't tell me why and even agreed with me that speeding is bad. But sometimes she is in a hurry or running late and "needs" to speed, so that's why she wants her car to be able to go fast.

And this epitomizes the problem. Modern life has given us the attitude that because we can, we should be able to do. No matter the effect on the lives of everyone else in the world. It's also seen in things like bottled water. We can get it that way so now we think it is some sort of inalienable right, despite the environmental and social devastation it is causing around the word. All because it is convenient (because getting a glass and turning the handle on the tap is soooo hard) and people seem to think it's safer or cleaner, even though it's not. So it becomes a "need" when just a few years ago it was laughable to think that we would pay for water at something like 10,000 times the cost of the stuff that comes out of our faucet.

We could use another Great Depression. Maybe the word need would get a truer meaning again.