TScheisskopf
World News Trust
join:2005-02-13
Belvidere, NJ
 ·Sprint Broadband D..
| reply to Slava
Re: big deal over nothing
Sadly, it is the almost exclusive domain of ineffectual backbench politicians who want to make a name for themselves to introduce laws that address things that are fundimentally not a problem, or of such low probability of causing widespread societal damage as to be negligable. It gives them something to point to, at campaign time, ans crow "Ain't I just sumthin'? Look at what I did to protect you!". It's politics at its basest level. Both parties play it with nauseating regularity. A lot of tightly special interest laws come into effect this way.
Here in NJ, we have a long and scabrous history of this sort of lawmaking. Any act, behavior or social trend that gets anyone's knickers in a twist, no matter how trivial, eventually gets made illegal. What this has resulted in is a lot of chaos. Case in point: There are over 300 ways to lose your driver's license in NJ. Less than 100 have anything to do with driving. What is the effect of this orgy of driver's license suspension? Loss of license is the #1 cause of people going on welfare and a huge contributor to childhood poverty and family breakup. Because our mass transit could not suck more, fully 80% of people with a first license suspension get a second offense for driving on the suspended list. Because they have to work. Feed their family and whatnot.
This is what cheap, retail lawmaking causes. Because it's easier than addressing the real problems. |
