The Freek State

[helio]

Hey guys,

Haven't been around much since I moved to New Hampshire.  Found a great job in Nashua but have been working like a freak.

I want to share a story with you.  Since I've been working so much and so busy, I  neglected to get the license plates on the car changed to New Hampshire plates.  It is my fiance's car and since she's from Michigan, her plates were also Michigan plates.  Like me, she moved to North Dakota last fall to find work but never got her plates switched to North Dakota when they expired in October because her awesome job that she found got nixed because she didn't have the proper North Dakota license and they wouldn't recognize her Michigan license for Pharmacy Technician.  So she was broke and we never switched her plates.

Fast forward to last Saturday.  We had been driving around New Hampshire, to Portsmouth, Franconia, Manchester (I think there are more cops than citizens there) and Nashua.  Cops have been behind us and never bothered us with our way expired Michigan plates.  Well, I managed to get the New Hampshire plates for 150 bucks or so (its about 50 in Florida last time I did it). 
We found out that we had 10 days to get a state vehicle inspection from a state certified auto mechanic.   So I put the plates on and we headed off to Portsmouth since it was my first day off in about a month to enjoy ourselves.

So we got pulled over by the fist cop we saw because we didn't have the state inspection sticker.  He couldn't give us a ticket because we were in the 10 day mercy period so that was a relief.  This past Tuesday my fiance took the car to a local mechanic who failed the inspection.  One of the reasons was because the window wouldn't go up.  Safety concern.  And he wanted almost 500 bucks to fix everything.

I was furious.  We called a free stater friend of ours and she recommended a place in Manchester and he fixed it for half.  So I did some reading and it looks like many auto mechanics will say you need to get all kinds of things fixed to pass inspection just to get you to pay for crap you don't need.  It is a load of crap. 

[Seth King]

Anything positive to say about Nashua?

[macsnafu]

There is at least one positive about Oklahoma, small as it may be: no vehicle safety inspections.  A Republican governor actually got rid of it in the mid-90's.

[negator]

"papers please" as cottage industry.

[helio]

Anything positive to say about Nashua?

I do like the farmers market.

Honestly though I haven't had time to get out and do much.  I worked almost a month straight so I kind of burned out but now that I'm on a more normal work schedule I hope to get out and do more.

[MAM]

Dude I was actually going to ask where you were! But decided that it might be weird if I was like where in the hell did helio go!?!? So I decided not to. Man you should have just kept those expired plates. I think based on this story when I go to NH I'm not going to change out of the NM plates.

[Tear-Down-the-Wall]

There is at least one positive about Oklahoma, small as it may be: no vehicle safety inspections.  A Republican governor actually got rid of it in the mid-90's.

Awesome isn't it?

Now if we could just fix our liquor laws...

[BobRobertson]

I was furious.  We called a free stater friend of ours and she recommended a place in Manchester and he fixed it for half.  So I did some reading and it looks like many auto mechanics will say you need to get all kinds of things fixed to pass inspection just to get you to pay for crap you don't need.  It is a load of crap. 

It's one thing to argue that entitlement and govt mandates create moral hazard and corruption.

The problem being that people in general don't believe it. I think they don't _want_ to believe it.

Your example is no surprise at all. Dishonesty is rewarded in a merchantilist industry. The inspection racket is just that, a racket. Created for all the "right" reasons (safety), continued because there is so much money in it.

Just imagine how bad it is in other states!

The bogus inspections allow corruption in all directions. There are mechanics who make their monopoly profits by charging for false work. There are mechanics who make their monopoly profits by doing favors for friends and avoiding work that "should" be done.

The state salts the roads, and then calls "rust-through" a "safety" issue. They tax for the salt, they prosecute for the rust their salt creates.

Just another example of why honestly looking at problems ALWAYS leads to anarchy as the only workable answer.

[Syock]

The state salts the roads, and then calls "rust-through" a "safety" issue. They tax for the salt, they prosecute for the rust their salt creates.

Just another example of why honestly looking at problems ALWAYS leads to anarchy as the only workable answer.

To be fair, a private company would likely salt the roads and want a vehicle inspection.  The end result would be the same as the state run version.  You pay for the salt and can't drive on the road.  

If anarchy was the only workable answer, we wouldn't have roads right now.  It is just a better alternative.  

[Josh D]

The state salts the roads, and then calls "rust-through" a "safety" issue. They tax for the salt, they prosecute for the rust their salt creates.

Just another example of why honestly looking at problems ALWAYS leads to anarchy as the only workable answer.

To be fair, a private company would likely salt the roads and want a vehicle inspection.  The end result would be the same as the state run version.  You pay for the salt and can't drive on the road.  

If anarchy was the only workable answer, we wouldn't have roads right now.  It is just a better alternative.  

My Grandpa owned a couple of car washes in Indiana, and salt was our best friend.  There would be a snow, and then some salt.  If we had a sunny weekend the car wash would make HUGE profits!

[BobRobertson]

To be fair, a private company would likely salt the roads and want a vehicle inspection.  The end result would be the same as the state run version.  You pay for the salt and can't drive on the road.

No. A private company could not compel you to use their service. So they salt their road all they want, you use a road that does not salt.

A private company could not compel you to use their service. So they require all the inspections they want, you use a road that does not require inspections.

If anarchy was the only workable answer, we wouldn't have roads right now.  It is just a better alternative.  

You call this working?

[Syock]

To be fair, a private company would likely salt the roads and want a vehicle inspection.  The end result would be the same as the state run version.  You pay for the salt and can't drive on the road.

No. A private company could not compel you to use their service. So they salt their road all they want, you use a road that does not salt.

A private company could not compel you to use their service. So they require all the inspections they want, you use a road that does not require inspections.

The government can't compel you to use a road either.  You can stay home.  You can walk.  Supposedly the money for roads comes out of gasoline and diesel taxes, so they are not really compelling you to pay for it either.  

If anarchy was the only workable answer, we wouldn't have roads right now.  It is just a better alternative.  

You call this working?

Working in that we have these functions.  Yes.  It is certainly immoral and inefficient, but it does indeed work.  If crime didn't pay, there wouldn't be any criminals.  

[JustSayNoToStatism]

To be fair, a private company would likely salt the roads

That's fine, but it wouldn't be done the same way. The people doing the salting are complete idiots (DPW = Dumb Public Workers), who get paid by the hour, and are usually earning double time. I've seen plows dump hundreds of pounds of salt on a side road when the forecast for snow was already cancelled. I've seen people "plow" side roads that have no snow on them, back up, plow the empty street again, back up and then dump half a ton of salt.

Waste of gas, waste of salt, waste of wages, damaging to the soil, damaging to the vehicles. Destruction from every perspective (except the guy getting his check).

/rant