Here’s a good one from Kevin D. Williamson, who’s about the only reason I ever wander over to NRO…
The problem for the U.S. political class is that the provision of actual public goods is nowhere near large enough of an enterprise to justify all of the clients they want to pay on the public payroll or all of the large, complex, lavishly funded agencies that they want to establish for the purpose of putting themselves in charge of them. So they have to return to the old protection-racket model: Much of American government today exists simply to stand between you and your own goals to collect a fee.
It’s Freedomista 101, but the article actually does attempt to provide a few examples of ‘public goods’ provided by government as opposed to ‘services’ that are nothing but glossed-over old-fashioned protection rackets – as exemplified by his excellent takedown of every DMV in existence.
I was still thinking about how I could squeeze a blog post out of this when I got a comment from Ben, who brought up a related matter…
I found myself wondering how a government-shy hermit deals with something like Daylight Savings Time. A few seconds of exhaustive research informs me that you are in one of the two USA states that doesn’t bother. Given that the historical reason for DST was to save energy by delaying turning lights on in the evening, and considering that with CFLs and LEDs lighting is a pretty insignificant part of our power consumption these days, does DST still make sense? Did it ever?
I don’t know about you but back in the day I loathed and detested DST. Living in Michigan where winter days are quite short, I resented that lost hour of evening sunlight almost as much as the unendurable* DMV – I found it to be exactly emblematic of my true use to the corporation and the state, to the extent that there was a difference. ‘You must set your clocks back in the fall so that all available sunlight may be used for your useful (to us) labor. Afterward you may do as you please – but in the dark.’ DST meant I went to work in twilight and came home in twilight – where more often than not I was presented a list of chores to be done in the dark. Daylight Savings Time was, as I said, the perfect emblem of pretty much everything I hated about life, and I’m very happy to be rid of it.
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*If there’s one single reason why I ended up a hermit, believe it or not that reason would be the DMV.
I’m allergic to filling out forms. It’s close to an actual phobia for some reason, and I never ever got my business done on a single visit to the damned DMV. Always I forgot a needed form, or something wasn’t properly in order, or…Gah! It continually amazes me that people don’t go postal in those horrid places. I didn’t even mind so much paying the useless tax, but why do they have to make it so unpleasant and difficult? It’s as though demonstrating your willingness to go through the humiliation is the whole point. Anyway, in California I finally fell so far in arrears on my kowtowing duties that I was no longer welcome to partake of any number of government ‘services.’
I’m almost grateful to the overweight, undermotivated counterrats of DMV offices in several states, for driving me right out of their system.
While the overall concept of a DMV rubs me that wrong way, I have to say that not all are staffed by single-digit-IQ cretins with over-abundant mass and aroma. In my experience, those types are more prevalent the closer ones gets to the “big city”. Out here in the boonies at the local courthouse the ladies are usually quite polite, pleasant, and anxious to do the job so long as you have all the proper paper ready. Here, that amounts to the notice of renewal you received in the mail, your old registration, and the proof-of-insurance card your insurance company thoughtfully provides at each year’s re-up. Since the fee is shown on the renewal notice, you can have the check all made out and ready when you arrive (they also do cash or plastic). Usually takes no more than fifteen minutes, in-and-out if they are busy.
Yes, I realize this is as good as it gets, and I lived in Detroit for a while so I’m familiar with the opposite end of the scale. South Carolina adds its own maddening complications to the mix, as well. And no “good as it gets” makes up for the underlying presumption of “their” right to impose all this on us.
One nice perk of being retired is that I can leave the clocks unchanged for days, and it doesn’t matter. I get up when I get up… and so forth – but I hate the whole idea of changing time twice a year anyway. It is insane to think that one “gains” or loses an hour by doing this.. just as cutting off one end of a blanket and sewing it onto the other side should make the blanket longer.
The DMV here is in a small store front in our only “strip mall” type thing, anchored by a “Loaf ‘n Jug.” It is only open three days a week, and is staffed by two ladies who work other jobs in town. I’ve never seen more than one other person in there in 10 years… well, my three visits so far. No waiting, and no hassle that I recall, just the silly paperwork. I don’t mind… everything they ask for is a matter of public record anyway. Still just as stupid and useless as “daylight savings time,” of course.
Waitaminute. I’m confused. You don’t like it getting dark early but you can’t blame it on DST. It’s not DST that causes it to get dark early. It’s standard time, which is what we just “fell back” to. Daylight Savings Time is what we were just on (makes it stay light later).
Oh, whatever. I hated the change.
“Daylight Saving Time” is the artificial summer clock setting that we just went off of. Not the “gets dark earlier” clock setting that comes in the fall. I always wondered why businesses, if they want to have “more daylight” in the evening, don’t just open an hour earlier without having to wait for clocks to be reset.
Personally, I still pay more attention to where the sun is than what the clocks say. I have a marker that tells me when it is noon- when the sun is at the zenith. On “Daylight Saving Time” noon doesn’t arrive until the clocks say it is 2pm or so. So the clocks are 2 hours off instead of just 1 hour off like they would otherwise be here at the edge of the time zone.
I understand coordinating clock settings so you can plan with other people, but I despise “Daylight Saving Time”- even with its imaginary “extra daylight”.
“Oh, whatever. I hated the change.”
Yep to what Mike in Ky says. But also yep to what you say. The damn changeover is the hard thing — and it’s all for nothing useful. I wish we could just set clocks at one place and let them run from there.
Plus people talk as if they actually believe in this stupid illusion of “gaining an hour” or “losing an hour,” as if the government could stop the sun in the sky or speed it up.
i must confess one of the prime reasons for moving to Arizona was to get away from DST. I utterly detest it. The other is, I don’t have to use any asthma medication when I’m here.
As far a DMV goes, not much difference between Kansas and Arizona except the added emissions check because I live in Maricopa County.
All the rules and fees are about pecking order/control and where we ‘mere mortals’ fall on their hierarchically scale. Me? I’m in their ‘peon class’ just outside of ‘criminal’ so they leave me alone.
“It’s not DST that causes it to get dark early.”
No, but DST ending is what makes it a sudden and nasty change, rather than the gradual shift that it should be.
I used to hate the time change. For years I would always luck out and get night shift for the fall time change. My 12 hour shift would turn into 13 hours, add to that the 1.5 hour commute each way and it was a very long night. Conversely in the spring I never seemed to get the beneficial time change. These days since I chucked it and took an early retirement I don’t give a rat’s ass about it.
As far as the DMV goes, I gotta say that I do my very best to avoid that place. It seems that whenever I set foot in one of their offices I am looking at a long wait no matter how few there are inside.
The one good thing about DST is that is serves as a twice-each-year reminder to check my smoke detectors.
Which is why I’m making this comment: Check your Smoke Detectors everybody!
Ben: New smoke detectors have non-replaceable batteries that are claimed to last ten years. Yer sposed to just toss ’em and buy a new one once per decade. So, yay, more radioactive waste for the local landfill!
Robert: You can still buy both types. But regardless of battery type, you are supposed to check them occasionally. Being a “belt and suspenders” sorta guy, I even have battery operated moisture detectors in strategic places, like under sinks and under my hot water heater. Those also need checking.
Ah, Joel, you can take heart now that you have not only shunned the DMV but that you need not deal with THIS DMV in Cali any further. Before the elected left majority decided to give illegal aliens drivers licenses, the wait was usually very long in San Clemente, I walked into the one up by where you used to live twice and well…..no, very long was an improvement. Now, the wait is about 3 days past glacial in ALL locations. At one point appointment making was a 6 months out proposition until the mad dash for Mexicans to fail their exams was abated a bit.
I drive by the San Clemente office once in a while and the line has never been shorter than out the door and down the sidewalk in well over a year.
Anything I can get done at AAA gets done at AAA.
The easiest tome I ever had in a DMV of any type was in Durango 20 years ago. I went to the office, walked in and declared my need to trade in the Cali for the Colorado license, they handed me a short form and asked for $8 and I walked out with a fresh card. It took less than 10 minutes, I had set an hour aside and used my excess time wisely at the bar down the street.