This is a topic that has been on my radar screen for a while, but one that very few Americans seem to be paying attention to despite the egregious revelations concerning NSA spying that have emerged recently. I first flagged this issue in late 2012 in an article titled: Coming to Your Car: Mandatory Black Boxes That Record Everything.
The latest push for tracking devices in cars is being sold as necessary in order to raise funds to pay for the nation’s decayed highway infrastructure. For example:
As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
This is simply idiotic. There is already a tax per gallon on gasoline, so people are already being taxed based on how much they drive. Only a control-freak, moronic government bureaucrat would come to the conclusion that the solution to this problem is to install Orwellian tracking devices in people’s cars.
More from the LA Times:
WASHINGTON — As America’s road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.
The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America’s major roads.
Are people really so dumb they will agree to this? Probably.
And while Congress can’t agree on whether to proceed, several states are not waiting. They are exploring how, over the next decade, they can move to a system in which drivers pay per mile of road they roll over. Thousands of motorists have already taken the black boxes, some of which have GPS monitoring, for a test drive.
“This really is a must for our nation. It is not a matter of something we might choose to do,” said Hasan Ikhrata, executive director of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is planning for the state to start tracking miles driven by every California motorist by 2025. “There is going to be a change in how we pay these taxes. The technology is there to do it.”
The push comes as the country’s Highway Trust Fund, financed with taxes Americans pay at the gas pump, is broke. Americans don’t buy as much gas as they used to. Cars get many more miles to the gallon. The federal tax itself, 18.4 cents per gallon, hasn’t gone up in 20 years. Politicians are loath to raise the tax even one penny when gas prices are high.
Loath to raise the tax, so let’s put a tracking device in every car instead. I don’t even know where to begin…
As the trial got underway, the ACLU of Nevada warned on its website: “It would be fairly easy to turn these devices into full-fledged tracking devices…. There is no need to build an enormous, unwieldy technological infrastructure that will inevitably be expanded to keep records of individuals’ everyday comings and goings.”
But it’s for the highways people. You like highways don’t you? I’m sure it’ll piss off the terrorists too.
What a sad state of affairs.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter!
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
This has been bouncing around for the last few years, more people have to be informed of this.
EVERYONE should be a dues paying member of the National Motorists Association. They fight this type crap and more.
Like going faster than the absurd 55 mph we were saddled with for years? You can thank their efforts for that.
Join now! http://www.motorists.org/
You could just refuse to buy a car with a box in it. I guess the newest car I’ll ever own is a 2012. (or whatever year is pre-black box.)
This all started with GMC’s OnStar program. (Although, I think Mercedes came out with the devices first). I was working for a GM dealership at the time and many people were concerned with their OnStar tracking devices and what they could be used for down the road. “Oh no!” everyone was assured, “it will never be used that way.”
Here we are a decade or so later and OnStar is shutting down your car in police chases, tracking you via GPS when the gov’t requests and soon, reporting to your angry wife what bar your car is parked outside of when you are late for dinner.
No thanks to little black boxes. If I lock my keys in my car, I can still use a coat-hanger, thank you very much.
There’s plenty of good old cars that don’t have all these fancy computerized systems and soon to be black boxes. It’s easy to buy those and you will save money too.
Let me cut through the fog for you.
It’s not that the gov. idiots are control freaks or moronic. This is 100% intention and comes from the very top of the pyramid. It’s compartmentalized so these lower level moronic bureaucrat idiots are not aware of the real plan. They are just pawns like the rest of the sheeple. They carry out what they are told. They do no thinking whatsoever.
The real plan is they want to lock down and track everyone 24/7. This is just another step in that direction.
“Only a control-freak, moronic government bureaucrat would come to the conclusion that the solution to this problem is to install Orwellian tracking devices in people’s cars.”
How the Government Tracks You:
The problem the government has, is that drivers of electric cars don’t pay the taxes you pay when you buy the gasoline. They have to come up with a new medium to tax. Of course, they’ll probably figure out how to tax both, but there is a cogent argument here if they cease the gas tax and start the blackbox tax.
Ridiculous! When I renew my car insurance each year, they ask for vehicle mileage. The government could use the same number and shove the box!
“Only a control-freak, moronic government bureaucrat would come to the conclusion that the solution to this problem is to install Orwellian tracking devices in people’s cars.”
Or a member of a libertarian think tank. Those guys have been pushing this stuff for years. See for example the Cascade Policy Institute position on “congestion pricing”.
I guess having the word “libertarian” next to your name does not necessarily imply you actually support liberty. The world is 90% bullshit…
You also state your odometer mileage every year when renewing your tag. So calculating tax isn’t the real reason behind this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDqzseecgkI