Picture of a burnt out speed camera from the UK.
As many of you know the UK is camera happy. The only problem is the UK residents are not too happy about the cameras. They are a good source of revenue if they don’t end up like this one but they don’t prevent crime and may actually encourage it. The cost to install this camera is anywhere from 20K to 40K Sterling depending on location. Revenue stream from these cameras is unknown but that’s an awful lot of tickets to be paid for this camera to break even. Assuming it doesn’t end up like this of course. I believe this particular camera is now on it’s third replacement.
This weekend, in Ireland, one of the fleet of 15 mobile speed traps was fire bombed. The Van and equipment was worth 50K Euros. It was firebombed at 4 AM and fortunately the operator of the vehicle woke up in time to get out of the van. Apparently it was the smell of the smoke that alerted him and not the sound of the driver side window being smashed or the sound of the gasoline being poured in through the window as he was sleeping it off in the back of the van. I guess even in the most drunken slumber the subconscious will eventually kick in and alert you to life threatening situations.
So why should you care what those crazy European people do? What happens in Europe will happen here eventually. It just takes a little longer. Illinois, Jersey, Florida have already started on their austerity measures. The Jersey Governor fired a bunch of cops in Newark. If you have ever been to Newark you would know this is probably not going to end well.
What do cops do what do when their livelihood is threatened by budget cuts? Well they don’t have bake sales that’s for sure. Expect to see a lot more speed traps as states get more and more strapped for cash. Then it will be the traffic light cameras, then it will be the traffic lights timer change the orange light from 5 seconds to 3 seconds and all captured on film as you make the mistake of thinking you have enough time to zip through. Then we will start with the gasoline doused burning tires around the cameras.
Where there was one speed trap on the commute from Jersey to Manhattan in the morning now there are five. As the states find themselves more and more stressed financially expect more budget cuts and expect more and more measures from the state employees trying to keep their budgets whole.
5 comments:
Here in Australia, they are pushing a 'Carbon Tax' onto us (Kris Sayce from money morning sums it up pretty well) It is more or less the same pattern as what you're describing here ... as everything disappears down the deflationary black hole they have to find ways of screwing more value/production out of the system.
Typically the responsibility to provide this falls to the people who actually have any form of savings left and we are rightfully angry about that. What makes me more upset is that the world would actually be a cool place without the ability for the parasites to so easily exploit. But whoever designed this system not only took away our rights, they also took away our language to describe it - like being bound and gagged.
Thanks for digging this story out, Louis.
I should add; expect the city and town inspectors to become more zealous enforcing rules for trashcan coverage etc.
These little men with their little badges will show up and try and shake down the average Joe for a few more bucks here and there. Your town will be starving for cash with a lot of excess employees and they won't be able to make ends meet unless they get zealous or creative.
Don't forget to make sure that trash can is the right shape and make sure the lid is secure. Make sure to get a building permit to replace that door and a building permit to hire a qualified electrician to swap out that light switch. Everyone has their hand out.
I used to own rental property close to a famous University but sold it mainly because it was looking like the last gasp of the housing market. That last year of ownership was horrendous. Between the clean cut drug dealers (all with respectable jobs) and the city hitting me with fines for missing trash can lids etc. I had had enough.
The assholes actually had me arrested for failing to appear in land court. I was hauled away in hand cuffs for not showing up at some little crappy court to explain in person why my tenants didn't bring out their garbage and to show them receipts for the 20 trash cans I bought per year.
The trash collectors used to just throw the trash cans on the street or sidewalk and the tenants would not bring them in.
I could go on but you get the idea.
The only reason I didn't get jail time was I had sold the house before they had hauled me away in cuffs and before I was due to appear.
This is one reason I am a more Libertarian than anything else. I should not be held responsible for the actions of a few morons who just happen to be renting from me.
I had written my comment above before I viewed Gonzalo Lira's latest peice. Specifically the post from 'K Smith' echoes the sentiment ... I was discussing this very thing with my wife last night.
"The real culprits? Our Central Bank/Dishonest Money System. The dollar is the world reserve fiat currency, the linchpin of a world debt based money system that drives wealth out of the pockets of those who create wealth thru work and into the pockets of those who have first access to the newly created money." [link]
I see this as the hive mind slowly articulating and giving voice to the things currently hidden from view. Happily it should not be too long before the basics are clear for everyone to see. The link between this meme (which we know) and the ongoing theft from the middle class (through speeding cameras, carbon taxes and increased health insurance premiums, wars) is that the daily plunder becomes easier to see once there is less to plunder. i.e. even goverments are not immune, they just pass on the bill to the hapless citizen who has already been pilfered from and it continues until we say 'enough!'.
I mention deflationary collapse because I'm getting a better reception on my mental television now. So long as the transition is controlled then it's all good (for them). They'll do everything in their power to prevent deflation (like FO/FO/A talks about worthless dollars being dumped on your front lawn) but the natural forces behind it are real and can't simply be papered over. So how much credit is being destroyed every day? Would it be (perchance) close to the amounts they inject (e.g. via POMO). That's a good game - retain the power and control from issuing the currency at the source, and then let the value evaporate once in the hands of individuals. Hyper-inflation here from printing money? Can't see it, because it's a one-way conduit (rather than being a closed loop).
If the cash cow (us) looks like it might die then quickly give it a quick infusion so the game can continue - currently a perveted kind of equilibrium with the middle class permanently hooked up to an infernal machine (think Bear Bile Farming). I am consistently amazed that with so many human beings on this planet, that our collective quality of life should be found to be in a state of degradation - it doesn't make sense and I am left wondering where the value has disappeared to. It is either already in the hands of the Banksters, or it is busy tunneling its way into gold bullion - the store of wealth of the ages. Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox.
Just saw your housing story Louis (it appeared as I posted mine). That's pretty mind boggling. We had a brief experience with being a landlord (never again).
I wonder how much pressure we can all bear - here the carbon tax is not enough, health insurance premiums are getting huge increases across the board and this is on top of the recent flood levy (here in Queensland), the cost of groceries and skyrocketing fuel costs. Then try and get an electrican to look at your faulty lights (lordy $$).
Like you said, they HAVE to do it, since there is a general shortfall of cash/value/productivity and entire communities fall apart if the flow is not there.
But where did all the cash/value/productivity go? I'm wondering if this is the result of (collectively) too many people spending their time watching reality TV and collecting welfare instead of being net producers? The host can only support so many parasites before it is consumed.
After talking with a friend in Ireland for an hour the other day I am more and more convinced we have sown the seeds of our own destruction. Our masters have no more scraps to throw us from their table and we will fight amongst ourselves.
Thomas Jefferson....
“Our public credit is good, but the abundance of paper has produced a spirit of gambling in the funds, which has laid up our ships at the wharves as too slow instruments of profit, and has even disarmed the hand of the tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will cure itself. I wish it may; but I have rarely seen a gamester cured, even by the disasters of his vocation.” ~Letter to Gouverneur Morris, 1791
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