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Title:	It's like purchasing candy from an authorised candy retailer
Author:	Toam	Posted: 27-11-2006
I was reading the newspaper a couple of days ago and saw an article (which I believe started on the front page but I could be wrong as I don’t have the paper with me) about parking inspectors, parking fines and the associated outrage people feel. Now, I’m not sure how many of you are aware of my opinion towards people complaining about parking fines etc but basically it is along the lines of this: You park in an area where you should only be there for a certain amount of time and you are longer than this amount of time then it is your own fault so shut the hell up about the fine. Speeding and parking violations are two things which people seem to think aren’t a concern, presumably because everyone does it. In many discussions on this topic where others have been complaining about how they were fined for being ‘just a little bit over’ or whatever I have put forth my “It’s your own fault” argument which tends to be fairly poorly received. It is often said that because I don’t drive I don’t understand. While it is true that I don’t drive I’m not convinced that this fact is at all relevant to my understanding of the issue. I’m pretty sure no gun owners would tell me that I can’t say it is a bad idea to shoot someone in the face just because I don’t own a gun, so why should car related illegalities be any difference since I don’t own a car? At this point I’m sure that at least someone is thinking about speeding fines in terms of the legal tolerance etc and thinking “But Toam! It actually isn’t right!” and I will admit that the laws regarding speeding need to be adjusted but that isn’t my department. My department is complaining on the internet about people being moronic. Ok, so the article I read was this one. I would recommend reading it or else anything I say is not going to mean much at all. Now, because this is the way I do things, I will summarise what I just made you read anyway. Basically they are implementing a system which streamlines the fining process by using technology to catch you when you are parking over the limit. The first thing that caught my attention was the language used in this article. “Motorists will be sitting ducks as councils launch a hi-tech parking blitz that will rip hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from Victorians.” Straight away it’s a bad thing. Sitting ducks? As though you have no way to avoid having the fine “ripped” from you? How about simple not breaking the law? In the paper it showed a picture of the unit and it said something along the lines of “Park time: 10:00 Current time: 11:42 overstay: 37min” for a one hour parking zone. I don’t remember exactly the wording or the times but I remember that the stated overstay was 5 minutes less than the actual overstay. This article annoyed me enough as it was because I hate it when people complain about things which they have done to themselves and were easily avoidable. However a little later on I was at the pub, which happens to be a sports bar, and I noticed a sign near the bar which said something along the lines of “Simply mark your card with how much you wish to spend” which was to do with the way they had changed something to do with the whole betting process (not being much of a gambler I am not really sure what) so that it is quicker and easier for you to gamble. Again, the first thing that caught my attention was the language. How much you wish to spend. Not ‘play’ or ‘bet’ or ‘gamble’ but spend. It may as well say “How much you wish to hand over to us”. And I am sure when this new streamlines system of gambling was introduced people were quite happy with it. Now, just in case the similarities here are not obvious to you I will point it out: When the council implements a way to streamline the process in which they take money off you – for actually breaking the law – people complain, yet when the TAB implements a way to streamline the process in which you simply hand over your money you rejoice. Yeah, I understand that the very notion of gambling comes with the possibility of a win but the obvious truth is that you lose much more often that you win. If not, no one would take bets. The whole idea of it is to run at a profit, so the gambler must run at a loss. However it is your choice to gamble so people generally don’t have a problem with it or complain when they take your money. However it is also your choice to park where you do and to not take notice of the time limits and to over stay the time limits. But for some reason people complain about this one. My point is that there is nothing wrong with a streamlined system for fining you for breaking the law. Anyone who complains about getting a fine because they broke the law is an idiot and anyone who writes a newspaper article making the councils out to be the bad guys for this is an idiot.
Overstay: 314 minutes