Quote:
Originally posted by Superman
Simple. Because mobility = commerce. Scary that you did not know the answer to that.
If a permit to operate a motor vehicle in this country were as difficult to get as they are in Europe, then.......
1) Less people would die
2) Less people would get hurt
3) Less automobile accidents would occur'
4) Insurance premiums would be much lower
5) Traffic congestion would decrease
6) Transportation costs would fall and
7) Road construction and maintenance costs would fall
Those are just the highlights. But of course, two other things would also be true:
1) Less cars would be sold and
2) Less gasoline would be purchased
So as you can see, we wouldn't want stuff like transportation safety and transportation ease and transportation costs to become more important than oil company and car company profits.
That's why we do what we do.
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C'mon, Supe; I know you love your big evil corporate America conspiracy theories. You missed this one by a country mile, though.
It's actually far simpler than you depict. It all boils down to our fundemental
right to travel. A right so basic, so intrinsic to human existance, so flippin' obvious, that our Founding Fathers saw no need to even include it in our Bill of Rights. So while commerce is inarguably a part of it, it is cast in the shadow of this fundemental right. Gubmint can regulate
commerce; we have given them the authority to do so. We have not given gubmint the authority to regulate our personal travel.
"The State" has no more authority to impinge upon this right than it does to impinge upon the right to arm one's self. They have no place in dictating or regulating our chosen means to do either. They have duped the public into believing that driving is a
priveledge they grant to us. Wrong, wrong, wrong... it is the common and accepted means of personal conveyance in use today. They have no more cause to interfere in (read: regulate) that than they do your ability to take a walk. Because our chosen means of conveyance has become mechanized, gubmint has seized upon the opportunity to jump in and regulate it, convincing the masses they actually have the authority to do so.
There have been a number of court cases wherein citizens have challenged the gubmint's authority in this area and have won. Do a cursory search on "right to travel" for more information. The precedent is clear on this point. Yet, like gun control and gun laws, the people are woefully unaware of the relationship between us, the citizens, and the government
we have established.
Gun laws and transportation laws have gone down a remarkably similar path of government interference in our personal lives. We have not given them the charter to interfere as they do; they have taken it for themselves. They have over-stepped the bounds of the authority we, the people, have granted them in both of these areas. Most folks don't even seem to realize that anymore. They expect to be regulated; they expect some authority (our government) to grant them "permission" to partake of the "priveledges" that that government owns, to be doled out at that government's pleasure. That is most decidedly
not the relationship between citizens and our original
government of the people, by the the people, and for the people intended by our Founding Fathers.