Too many hands in my pocket
I am a normal average American. I go to work, (when there's work to be had) I pay taxes, I deal with the BS that's handed me, because this is where I live, this is my government and my country and with it is a set of certain rules, while retarded at times are the rules of my society. I abide by them, usually. When it comes to speed limits I will at times do 5-15 miles over the speed limit. When it comes down to it, I'm a goody goody. I don't use drugs, I don't kill people and overall I am a good person. Why is it then, that compared to some people I feel like a second class citizen.
Hell, if you look at some of the people we share this country with, they seem to get away with murder. Prisoners get treated better than citizens which is an overall shame. I still have a problem with the fact that MY taxes go, without my approval to a jail system that gives prisoners cable T.V., internet and other amenities, when I myself cannot afford some of these things.
So to get down to the real issue, my tags were expired. I got pulled over and got a ticket. Now common sense would tell you that if I didn't have the money to pay for my tags, I probably wouldn't have the money to pay for the ticket either, right? Logically speaking it makes sense to me, however this seems to be lost on the government. So eventually, my tags get paid. My ticket becomes and oversight and does NOT get paid. My license gets suspended. I find out this information, and in fear of going to jail for something as menial as I DONT HAVE MONEY, I stop driving.
I finally get a little bit of money (right now I'm going through a tough period with jobs and what not), I go to pay the ticket. Where I live, if you are past 30 days paying your ticket, they send it to collections. So instead of paying 73 dollars for a ticket, I am now paying 125 dollars for a ticket. I pay the ticket, through the collections office at the inflated rate. Let me remind you, I am now paying a 50 dollar fine on a 73 dollar fine of a 35 dollar fee. After paying my fine on a fine of a fee, I want to get my license. I have to wait 5 days for the collection agency to let the DMV know that my ticket has been paid.
So I wait, inconveniencing boy, who has been gracious enough to drive me about even when he gets off at 6pm and should be taking that time to relax. This morning I called to find out if they would accept debit cards at the DMV, also to get a complete total of what I would be spending, thinking it would be 25 dollars or so. In tampa when I helped someone out with a similar situation, their cost came to 25 dollars. NOPE! Not only do I have to pay the fee for a new card when I still have my old one, however this does not matter because I still have to purchase a new one, I also have to pay 43 dollars to reinstate my license. AND.... this doesn't include taxes. TAXES, on a government fee. WTF??!! So my 35 dollar oversight is now costing me near to 250 dollars, because I didn't have the money to pay the 35 dollars. Sure as hell makes sense to me.
What I don't understand is this, most of us who are paying for our tags work, we pay taxes and god knows with work and everything else we have to do, we get forgetful. I myself forget a lot of the finer details about everything. Boy even points this out to me when I do it. Would it not be logical to have an OPTIONAL deduction from your paycheck right around your birthday to pay for your tags? Or even if it were 3 dollars a month coming out of your pay check to pay for your tags. Of course, the government has never made anything optional and even suggesting this would be wrong, because it would become mandatory and people who don't even own cars would end up paying a tag fee.
Optional taxes. This actually makes sense. I use the public school system, so I would have no problem putting my money into the school system. I don't feel like I should have to support dead weights who have children to make more welfare money, so I would chose not to put my taxes into the welfare system. Let other, much more liberal than I, people put their money into that ridiculous program. This way, what the people want and need is handled by the people, and not somebody who lies to get into their position so they can fill their agenda, and the agendas of every person who helped get them there.
However, this is all too logical, makes too much sense so the idea would more than likely go nowhere.
Hell, if you look at some of the people we share this country with, they seem to get away with murder. Prisoners get treated better than citizens which is an overall shame. I still have a problem with the fact that MY taxes go, without my approval to a jail system that gives prisoners cable T.V., internet and other amenities, when I myself cannot afford some of these things.
So to get down to the real issue, my tags were expired. I got pulled over and got a ticket. Now common sense would tell you that if I didn't have the money to pay for my tags, I probably wouldn't have the money to pay for the ticket either, right? Logically speaking it makes sense to me, however this seems to be lost on the government. So eventually, my tags get paid. My ticket becomes and oversight and does NOT get paid. My license gets suspended. I find out this information, and in fear of going to jail for something as menial as I DONT HAVE MONEY, I stop driving.
I finally get a little bit of money (right now I'm going through a tough period with jobs and what not), I go to pay the ticket. Where I live, if you are past 30 days paying your ticket, they send it to collections. So instead of paying 73 dollars for a ticket, I am now paying 125 dollars for a ticket. I pay the ticket, through the collections office at the inflated rate. Let me remind you, I am now paying a 50 dollar fine on a 73 dollar fine of a 35 dollar fee. After paying my fine on a fine of a fee, I want to get my license. I have to wait 5 days for the collection agency to let the DMV know that my ticket has been paid.
So I wait, inconveniencing boy, who has been gracious enough to drive me about even when he gets off at 6pm and should be taking that time to relax. This morning I called to find out if they would accept debit cards at the DMV, also to get a complete total of what I would be spending, thinking it would be 25 dollars or so. In tampa when I helped someone out with a similar situation, their cost came to 25 dollars. NOPE! Not only do I have to pay the fee for a new card when I still have my old one, however this does not matter because I still have to purchase a new one, I also have to pay 43 dollars to reinstate my license. AND.... this doesn't include taxes. TAXES, on a government fee. WTF??!! So my 35 dollar oversight is now costing me near to 250 dollars, because I didn't have the money to pay the 35 dollars. Sure as hell makes sense to me.
What I don't understand is this, most of us who are paying for our tags work, we pay taxes and god knows with work and everything else we have to do, we get forgetful. I myself forget a lot of the finer details about everything. Boy even points this out to me when I do it. Would it not be logical to have an OPTIONAL deduction from your paycheck right around your birthday to pay for your tags? Or even if it were 3 dollars a month coming out of your pay check to pay for your tags. Of course, the government has never made anything optional and even suggesting this would be wrong, because it would become mandatory and people who don't even own cars would end up paying a tag fee.
Optional taxes. This actually makes sense. I use the public school system, so I would have no problem putting my money into the school system. I don't feel like I should have to support dead weights who have children to make more welfare money, so I would chose not to put my taxes into the welfare system. Let other, much more liberal than I, people put their money into that ridiculous program. This way, what the people want and need is handled by the people, and not somebody who lies to get into their position so they can fill their agenda, and the agendas of every person who helped get them there.
However, this is all too logical, makes too much sense so the idea would more than likely go nowhere.