Government is always a zero-sum game. There are winners – and losers.
It is said – that is, we are told – air bags “save lives.” Well, yes. They do save some lives. Other lives have been lost as a result of air bags, though.
Government decides who lives – and dies.
Here’s another: Daytime Running Lights (DRLs).
These always-on headlights are now ubiquitous. They have been standard equipment on GM cars for decades (since the early ’90s) and it’s pretty much impossible to buy a new car that doesn’t automatically turn on its headlights even on the brightest summer day – when you need headlights about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. It’s true that in some new cars, you can turn the DRLs off. But they’re default on unless you turn them off.
And most people just leave them on.
Ok, but how does that make the roads less safe? Bear with me a moment.
GM began fitting all its cars with DRLs back in the ’90s as a cost-saving measure. “Safety” might have been the window dressing, but the real reason was dollars and cents – and government force.
GM sells (and builds) a bunch of cars in Canada, where DRLs have been mandatory since 1989 (see here). Someone in the guts of GM’s accounting department realized that it would save the corporation a bunch of money for GM to build all its cars with DRLs rather than build cars bound for the U.S. without them and those slated for sale in Canada with them. And because GM – especially late 1980s/early ’90s GM – was the 800 pound gorilla of the car industry, what GM did others tended to do.
And, they did.
Suzuki, Subaru and Toyota have been DRL’ing it up since about 1995. DRLs have been mandatory in most of Europe since 2011 – which takes care of Audi, VW, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Fiat.
In Sweden –Â birthplace of the odious Safety Cult – they’ve been required since 1977.
Allegedly, this increases safety by making cars more visible.
But how about motorcycles?
Now that cars run around with their headlights on all the time, it’s a lot harder to see them. Because of visual clutter, washout. And glare. 
That’s “unsafe,” wouldn’t you say?
Especially given that bikers are a lot more vulnerable than drivers. An accident involving two cars at 25 MPH is a fender bender. An accident at 25 MPH involving a car and a bike can be a life-ender.
For the biker.
But then, his life is valued less by government, which picks the winners and losers.
If you’re older than 40, you will remember that once upon a time and not so very long ago, it was easy to spot a bike – even at a distance – because the bike had its headlight on. And because cars did not (unless they were part of a funeral procession). In traffic, especially, a bike with its headlight on compensated for the narrower profile and reduced visibility of the cycle.
It made riding safer.
Then along came Uncle. Or rather, whatever cartoonish icon they have in Canada to represent the power of the state. Ditto Europe and Japan.
DRLs haven’t yet been mandated here, but it’s a moot issue given that DRLs are de facto standard equipment (whether you want them or not) because of the government pressure to build DRL-equipped cars for most markets. That pressure ends up with all cars DRL-equipped. I’m pretty sure every new car currently sold in the United State (singular on purpose, in the interests of editorial accuracy) has DRLs. Not because consumers clamored for them. But because governments forced consumers to buy them. Supposedly, to make the roads “safer” … for cars. But bikes got lost in the shuffle.
Who speaks for them?
Like the people killed (and many more badly injured) by air bags, their lives were deemed (to paraphrase another Uncle – Joe Stalin) a “statistic.”
Also – less lethally – the costs involved. DRLs are not free. Which you’ll discover when the array of LED DRLs your new car has burn out. They increase energy usage, too. Your DRL-equipped car burns a bit more gas than it would otherwise, to keep the lights on all the time.
But the main point I’m trying to make here is the sociopathic nature of government, which coldly disposes of other peoples lives(and money) without the least compunction or twinge of conscience. What matters to government is policy. That is, power. The intoxicating rush that comes to diseased minds (and blackened souls) from being in a position to order other people’s lives like so many pawns on a chessboard.
An ordinary person – one not yet afflicted by the disease of power lust – would recoil from any decision that involved creating winners and losers, the losers losing their lives. Governments issue such decisions glibly, casually – every day. And the more they issue, the less they care about the human individuals who bear the costs and consequences.
DRLs – and air bags – have their pros and their cons. No matter how highly you esteem the pros, it is outrageous to impose the costs on anyone.
The fact is that both air bags and DRLs – and probably a lot more such besides – would never have become mass market items absent meddling with the market. This speaks volumes about the true value of these items – “value” being a subjective whose only true measure is what people are willing to pay for it.
Bad enough the market’s been twisted into a Byzantine mishmash of corporate statism and lingering fumes of free choice. But the fact is people are dying as a result.
And the fact that others are “living” doesn’t help the dead much.
Throw it in the Woods?Â
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Haven’t read all the comments, so forgive me if someone already thought of this, but what sticks in my craw about DRLs, is: In the daytime, you’ll never know when the bulb burns out…and of course, if you’re driving around with a burned-out headlight, even at high noon in the desert, it becomes yet another excuse for the armed goons of the state to disrupt your trip and invade your privacy and meddle with you…
Lets face it: When you live in a police-state, government just keeps increasing their power and presence- and uses your money to do it- and it will never end until that state falls. Everything “for our safety” just, in reality, becomes another excuse for the state and their mercenary enforcers to interfere in our lives; which in reality is the biggest compromise to our true safety and liberty.
And not only do DRLs put motorcicles at a further disadvantage, but they also make cars without DRLs harder to see….which is probably the justification that the emperors will use to soon require DRLs on all vehicles.
The only time DRLs are really effective, is on lone vehicles on country roads or open highways. Requiring all cars to have them will not increase safety for 98% of average drivers…but it will impede their safety, as Deputy Dawg and his band of armed highway maruaders will have an excuse to pull more of the m over.
Germans used light as camo in ww2 for their planes. Made them less visible from observation. How would DLR’s make cars more visible? Especially if everyone has it going? Humans tend to pay attention to that which is different. Idiots running around with headlights don’t stand out, they blend in.
Regulation brought to you by the same folks who probably don’t drive their own car. Same idiots who mandated gas cans that spill gas every time you use them, in order to somehow “help” save the environment. We could make an endless list, and it would be added to daily by well meaning (or bought/paid for legislators, take your pick) given the amount of rules churned out daily that are promoted as for our benefit. Of course the “our” is never truly defined. $.02, thanks.
re: the gas can regulations: the “New improved” POS is because the gas cans were deemed too dangerous after several, left too close to the fire, degraded (melted) and the vapor space in the cans allowed ignition.
Event path was:
Idiot uses gas can, leaving it partially empty.
Idiot puts gas can near fire.
Fire heats can.
Can can now deform, and part of can (including plastic “cans”) is hot.
Idiot picks up gas can, splashing gas onto hot sections of deformable plastic.
Plastic remains “hot enough” to deform.
Gasoline vaporizes, changing pressure levels inside can.
Can deforms (bursts) spraying gasoline in liquid and vapor state all over the place.
Vaporized gasoline in “perfect” (good enough) fuel:air ratio is now combustible, and with flame source, the place lights up.
Usually, Idiot is covered in gasoline, which also ignites.
Idiot is burned, possibly very badly.
Government gets involved to make things “better” or “safer”.
Result:
Badly-burned idiots get major settlements.
Settlement is not due to flaw in design or product, but improper use.
Settlement terms state as much.
Government “safety-fies” the containers, installing worthless pressure-control systems into molded-plastic containers, making gasoline spill all over the place EVERY TIME YOU TRY TO USE THE CAN.
But SAFETY!!!!! Never mind that now, you don’t NEED to misuse the can to burn yourself, as the fuel is all over, and the air provides PLENTY of oxygen – and a stray spark (drop a wrench or hammer?) or a stray cigarette butt (does the neighbor or the spouse or the mechanic smoke?) or a poorly-timed start of the engine in a poorly-ventilated space, you can be in for a WORLD of hurt! Better not be wearing artificial fibers, those can melt into your flesh…. Debradement would be merciful by comparison to liquid polyester, polypropylene, etc, being removed from your muslces….
You won’t have skin, no need to worry about that any more….
Don’t you feel SAFE now?
Note, BTW, that metal can do similar, it’s not unique to plastic, but the metal would likely be worse on the initial “burst,” making that “burst” a “blast” (defined as rapid burning in the vapor space, though certainly not fast enough that you suffer explosive, IE, concussive, forces). The gasoline may ignite inside the container, in other words, spraying you with burning instead of just liquid gas, thus ensuring a fireball, a piss-your-pants moment, and possibly resulting in flames engulfing your body. This is opposed to the plastic, where you’ll likely be covered with warm or hot liquid gasoline, but the flame source might be far enough away that you don’t light up immediately, and possibly only get doused with hot gas and never light up.
Metal contains and conducts heat far better, and that means you can get deflagration more easily. The container will cool, the burning inside the container (if sustainable) will cause the pressure wave, and you’re f*cked.
For those who think I’m just “full of it,” the US Navy and Air Force use a fuel pump inside the internal wing tanks of their aircraft. It sprays fuel around, because even the higher-energy (joules) fuel of the airplane, doesn’t burn as a liquid. It has to be a gas first…. Kerosene (jet fuel) can be used to put out the fire inside the wing, if a tracer hits the tanks. Just not enough oxygen present to propagate the flame; disrupt the flame, it consumes the O2, and flame goes out. Leave a vapor space, though – you can blow the wing off the plane.
God, I miss talking to my dad sometimes… đ He was on the case I referenced, and he was one of two design teams to come up with that solution for the aircraft during .. Korea, I believe, but it was his time at Reaction Motors, so I’d have to double-check. Not really important… đ
File this cr@p with the “turn off your cell phone while fueling the car” BS.
I had an experience back in the ’80s riding my ’69 Kawasaki H1–I had the lights off while riding in city traffic, then as I was coming to an intersection with left-turning cars I decided to turn the lights on. Just before I switched the lights on a car began turning left right in front of me–then slammed his brakes on as he saw my light. I stood out because there were no other lights on any other cars around me. Now when I drive my ‘ol ’85 Jetta I really have to search for bikes due to all the DRLs dazzling me. Oh, and all these stupid ‘conspicuity vests’….they’re more distracting than helpful in my opinion. Flashing lights and bright colors when used to excess overload our senses and we tend to ignore them–at least I do!
Strobes and flashing landing lights work well in aviation because there is a lot of contrast between the plane and the sky–and the fact there’s a lot fewer planes flying even close to airports. I run strobes and ‘wig-wag’ landing lights on my plane day or night–helps to keep sight of my buddies in other planes when we’re going on flyouts.
But on the road, when everybody and their Uncle Duck has DRLs on and wearing those stupid vests EVEN INSIDE THEIR VEHICLE it’s information overload.
Sure wish I still had the ’69 and ’71 H1s, and the GT 380, and the GT 750, Maico 250……I guess the ’69 Yamaha AT1 airport will do for now. Thanks Eric for a cool site.
That’s it exactly, Greg!
Like you, I am old enough to remember what it was like to ride (and drive) before DRLs existed. Burning lights in daytime made on conspicuous then because of the contrast with traffic – which for the most part did not burn headlights in daytime.
Now, there’s so much visual clutter you almost need a guy running ahead of you waving a red flag for people to notice…
“you almost need a guy running ahead of you waving a red flag for people to notice⌔
That’s exactly what the law used to be – so drivers could control their horses if they were spooked by a horseless carriage.
Yup – hence the reference!
I should have know you knew that. Duh!
Except for constitutionally authorized functions such as regulating trade, building roads and providing for the defense (not perpetual war.), and providing a social safety net, government is ALWAYS a negative sum game.
Swamprat,
Please check premises:
FedGov has no charter to create a social safety net.
And that then begs the question, WHY should there be a social safety net? Because: WHO WILL PAY FOR IT?
The answer, of course, is WE will ALL pay for it – adding sudden influx of capital, which means we lose our opportunities, and enable FedGov to do what it wishes – FedGov cannot run in the black, it doesn’t know how. Doesn’t believe in it. (that’s part of the scam, devalue and inflate currency while being the noly owner of guns and ability to decide what IS and IS NOT money – thus making a controlled market from the start, including use of violence. The miracle is that we made it this far…)
Agreed Jean. Also the Constitution authorizes the FedGov to build POST roads, NOT all roads. And I pretty sure the Framers did not have the same concept of “regulating commerce” that is promulgated these days.
As for the ‘safety net,’ that is the function of private, voluntary charity. (Charity is by definition voluntary. If it is compelled, it is not charity.)
The Framers viewed “commerce” as Interstate commerce. At a time when the states were what we would think of as “nation-states” like the ancient Greek city-states.
IE, Fedgov was to arbitrate dispuites and ensure there wasn’t a war between the states.
We see how that worked out.
They also would NEVER have imagined how the “general welfare” clause would be applied, to do everything “For Your Own Good.” FYOG, we’re limiting what you can eat, say, think; we are enforcing OUR worldview on you through common teaching across the country, which will undermine any morality, tradition, culture, or cohesion; if you try to escape the brainwashing, we’ll put you on drugs, and then take your rights because you’re an “addict.” And GOD FORBID you try to trade with another willing person outside of OUR taxation schemes! You are the Antichrist, and FedGov will crash down on you (like the recent major bust in NJ, where the police took off the streets a large quantity of the dangerous substance known as… GINSENG. an ILLEGAL GINSENG GROWING OPERATION. )
The Founders are rolling in their graves…
I can’t believe no one WILL commit to violence. I also understand it would stupid to admit to using violence – anywhere, phone, letter, online.
And even worse, when there’s a report of someone who DOES use violence (the cop-killer in PA?) – groups like the PA Milita want to help THE POLICE! I could understand if he had started killing civillians, but he’s killed one cop and injured another so far. State Troopers at that. From ambush (wow, what a tactic, it almost feels like breaking into someone’s house at 3 AM with painfully-bright lights, screaming, waving guns around, barking contradictory orders….).
Yeah, The Sheeple will cheer Dorner et al (Would they have cheered Dorner if he were white and claimed the police fired him for being honest? Doubt it! but RACIS’, that works!) – but when rubber meets the road, they’d throw their own children on the fire to stay “safe”.
Disgusting.
I’m going for lunch…. and getting the F*(& off this site! for today. đ
“To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;” Article I, Section 8, 3rd clause.
I was not there, so I cannot prove it. but I have read that the definition of ‘regulate’ in use at the time was ‘to make regular.’
They were not champions of the free market, but they were saying that, if there were to be tariffs, they would be established by the FedGov, not the individual states, and that there would be no INTERNAL tariffs.
Course we know how they regulated the Indians. And now they are working on the rest of us.
You car guys are soo behind us Chevy truck owners. My 2000 Silverado has special DRL only lights built into the turn signal/ marker light assembly. They only turn off when the headlights turn on.
Eric I think you are on to something with motorcycles. Mr. Magoo pulled out of a driveway right in front of my dual 6000K High Energy Discharge lighted bike, which he eventually saw when they got planted into his drivers door. Drivers behind me and behind him all said they saw the bike, but he looked left into the sea of lights coming down the street and misjudged mine being in front of the pack behind me.
finally looked up DRL disable for my Tahoe(96)….I can’t wait for daylight to yank/unplug it from under the dash. To have the headlights blazing while I opened and shut gates and then to have the lights on after I garaged and shut ‘er down was fraying my nerves.The 2000 and up suburbans i drove for work had by-pass switches…but they had low amp driving lights instead of using
high wattage low-beams.
Next comes a stealth switch for the Harley….and a new front tire !
…agree of course with the standard indictment of government malice here, but you’re shaky on some assertions tied to it
strongly disagree that “… not so very long ago, it was easy to spot a bike â even at a distance â because the bike had its headlight on. And because cars did not …”. (that’s way too broad a generalization, with no facts to back it up; bikes did not “get lost in the shuffle” IMO)
DRLs are an excellent inexpensive safety feature, though they should of course be optional and selectable by consumers.
I ALWAYS drive Headlights-ON (with or without built-in DRLs) and never burned-out a headlight in the many cars I’ve owned; the tiny extra fuel $cost of DRLs is completely trivial to most drivers.
DRL’s in Oz are nonexistent, except for motorbikes which was mandated back in 1992. These days, people are conditioned to look for a motorbike headlight, not the bike itself. Gets a bit dangerous for an earlier model with headlights off as I’ve discovered on a few occasions while riding.
You may not recall the pre-DRL world, Ponce.
I do.
A motorcycle burning its headlights was much more obvious then than now… because it had its headlights on. And because no one else did.
A funeral procession is another case in point. When I was a kid, you could easily and immediately pick out the line of cars following the hearse… because those cars had their headlights on.
And no one else did.
Today, it is effing impossible to sort out the funeral procession – which (again) makes the situation less safe than it used to be.
Burning lights in daylight does make the vehicle with its lights on stand out in traffic. Unless, of course, all or most of the vehicles in traffic also have their headlights on.
Bikes are now less visible. Easier to not notice – because there is light-glare everywhere.
Which is why some bikers have fitted their machines with flashing lights.
The visual clutter on the road today is absurd.
Shining, flashing, blinking lights abound. This renders lights as means of making any given vehicle more noticeable a moot point.
It’s why cop cars now have a Christmas tree-like profusion of lights vs. what they had in the past. Because it’s also harder nowadays to pick out a cop car in traffic.
Because of the got-damned DRLs!
“Itâs why cop cars now have a Christmas tree-like profusion of lights vs. what they had in the past. Because itâs also harder nowadays to pick out a cop car in traffic.
Because of the got-damned DRLs! ”
Here in BC, all the Crown Victoria cop cars I have seen have the DRLs turned off. Dead giveaway as there are so few older non-DRL cars out there now.
Also, http://www.lightsout.org/disable.html
It’s known automotive engineering that all these flashing lights and DRLs and so forth distract and require more processing time to deal with. The visual clutter when lots of is going on only compounds the problem.
The problem is that we didn’t get HG Wells’ engineers running society we got social climbing morons running society. Because of this things have followed the path of what feels good instead of what works well. So we get DRLs, flashing lights, blinking lights, and so forth because they ‘grab attention’ without any concern for the system as a whole or any other consequences. The same sort of drive behind ‘blood on the highway’ films and MADD. Never thinking anything through, just reacting emotionally in the moment.
You mean like the white strobe on top of the school bus? As if no one knows that that big yellow box is a prison van.
” Placing your iPhone in the microwave will destroy the phone, and possibly the microwave.
While that might seem obvious to some people, others have fallen for the âWaveâ hoax making its way around online. The fake advertisement insists that the new iOS 8 allows users to charge their iPhones by placing them in a âhousehold microwave for a minute and a half.â
September 23, 2014 – http://www.market-ticker.org
That’s AWESOME….
We can tell the idiots by their charred iPhonies…
And the cannon fodder is ID’d by having iPhonies in the first place…
đ
Something I just thoguht of:
Up here in Beantown, and i’m sure aroudn the country as well – BICYCLISTS use flashing LED lights to communicate they’re NOT a car, to add to their visibility.
Maybe they need to get something more useful, like sparking Tesla coils, now?
Why is the solution always WORSE than the problem with these morons in .fedgov? They want to “DO SOMETHING” when it’s best to LEAVE IT ALONE, and then – when they MUST DO SOMETHING (e.g., southern border – sort of in their charter of responsibilities!) they do NOTHING!!!! And pretend they’re doing something.
I’d LOVE to see some vet or US-born person, unable to get proper medical care for “X”, legally cross into Mexico, and come back as an illegal, GET that medical care, free food and housing… and then we’ll hear that .FedGov is charging them under Fraud laws to recoup the costs.
I’m sure fedgov would be that idiotic, but I wonder if some other agency would just NDAA the offender to prevent it reaching the (complicit) Fourth Estate…
Bicyclists use flashing lights because it ‘feels’ like a ‘good idea’. Same reason DRLs feel like a good idea. Same with all the other nonsense. If you want flashing lights to attract a drunk driver to drive into, sure, use them.
I ride with my tail lamps on ‘steady on’ mode. Head lamps also, but they may not have the blinking mode. I know the main one does not. The back up might have a blink mode, it’s a cheapy. Anyway I do just fine and people see me just fine.
Even worse are the school buses I saw on my last trip stateside. Between 8 to 12 flashing lights on the back, where previously there were only 2. That great big bright yellow bus that is about 60 feet long and 10 feet high is not enough for b’crats, or for us motorists to see. Now the buses must have all these lights that flash so that motorists with weak vision unable to spot the monstrous buses now can see the flashing lights. What bright thinking these b’crats are full of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have those busses here, too. And in addition: The kids are no longer allowed to walk to a common stop/pick-up point to await the bus. Instead, the bus stops at literally every driveway. Each kid is waiting there with its parents. The bus crawls 20 yards, stops. Repeat.
Funny, based on previous discussion, I thought the bicyclists were choosing to use flashing modes “for safety” (visibility at night to car drivers).
đ
Which would now be pointless, due to all the light pollution and sensory overload – and would soon get even worse. Rendering bicyclists, motorcyclists, and eventually even police invisible to motorists.
Extrapolating from that?
More accidents, more confusion, more people killed by cops for not “obeying,” and no defense before the law of, “I couldn’t see the lights!”
More laws, more onerous “Safety” regs, more automation, removing the driver from actually driving, allowing the wireless/WiFi scanning of your car… Which may well come with built-in breathalyzers and drug sampling units, too. And the police will be able to stop you when they want – issue an order, your car pulls over, they can do whatever they want… It’ll NEVER be hackable, nor abused… /sarcasm
Yup.
It’s exhausting, yes?
I find myself often idly dreaming of a small, off-grid cabin far, far away from all this shit.
Eric – “I find myself often idly dreaming of a small, off-grid cabin far, far away from all this shit.”
Well, make sure it is VERY far away.
I may have to move in the next 5-10 years as the shit is flowing in this direction far too quickly. See my (8:55 am ) reply below to Jean. The problem is, where is left to go?
Once the closest one-horse-town got an A&W burger franchise, the writing was on the wall.
I feel your pain, Me2.
This area – Floyd County, Va. – is becoming Cloverfied.
In just the 10 years we’ve lived here, the changes are obvious. And – not good.
Where to go?
I think about that a lot.
I have no good answer.
It might be feasible to move to a less organized, less populated state, buy some acreage and just kind of… fade away.
One might be able to live out one’s days this way.
But given how things are going, probably not….
PS: Glad you’re “behind the fence,” too! (See today’s item under News.)
Brief note:
With the KIA Soul we have right now, a 2012 I believe, when you put on the headlights, the dashboard lights go to a much lower setting.
This makes it impossible to see the instrument panel clearly when you use sunglasses – as I do even at night, some times. VERY photosensitive eyes.
You can choose whatever works for you, but I’m fed up with the STOOPID in this society, and would like to chlorinate the shallow end of the gene pool.
Let the Homo Erectus among us live in cities and prey upon each other; those of us who want to be self-reliant and self-responsible can handle REAL life outside the city walls.
“…outside the city walls.”
That is just it. There can be no ‘outside’ for these collectivist a-holes.
I thought I moved far enough that the pricks would not follow but, oh no. They are coming and bringing their, “I’m entitled to have sewer and sidewalks and garbage pick up and streetlights, and, and, and……….” with them. The worst are the ‘environmental’ types who want to tell me how to live ‘sustainably’. Right after they slide their this-years-latest-fashion covered asses out of their this-years-model luxo-barge, check their this-years-model iphone, and have a swig of the Starbucks they brought.
But my old truck and woodstove are killing the planet……
Hypocritical stupidity should be grounds for Jeans solution.
Me2,
That sentiment warms the scar of black obisidian I call a heart… đ
Jean.
In my anarchist phase, I would have added: all forms of mechanistic authorithy lead to winners and losers.
For the most part, we live in Socially Planned world strictly controlled by Social Authorities. One species of this Genus – Social Authorities being “Government.” One universal governing axiom being – Safetyism.
For eruditions sake, con permiso, I’d like to discuss what we would expect to be the case beyondfind in an alternate Bizarro World where we might encounter a “Free Market.” A world not overrun by Social Authorities and they’re top down Safetyism.
In a free market, the âphilosophically objectiveâ value of a new product serves as the teacher for those who are willing to exercise their rational faculty, each to the extent of his ability. Those who are unwilling remain unrewardedâas well as those who aspire to more than their ability produces . . . .
A given product may not be appreciated at once, particularly if it is too radical an innovation; but, barring irrelevant accidents, it wins in the long run. It is in this sense that the free market is not ruled by the intellectual criteria of the majority, which prevail only at and for any given moment; the free market is ruled by those who are able to see and plan long-rangeâand the better the mind, the longer the range.
The economic value of a manâs work is determined, within a free market, by a single principle: by the voluntary consent of those who are willing to trade him their work or products in return.
An objection to Market Value is usually expressed by a question such as: âWhy should Elvis Presley make more money than Einstein?â The answer is: Because men work in order to support and enjoy their own livesâand if many men find value in Elvis Presley, they are entitled to spend their money on their own pleasure. Presleyâs fortune is not taken from those who do not care for his work. Nor is his fortune taken from Einstein. Nor does he stand in Einsteinâs way. Nor does Einstein lack proper recognition and support in a free society, on an appropriate intellectual level.
See also: Capitalism; Competition; Existential Torah; Objectivist Talmud; Free Market; Money; Purchasing Power; Self-Esteem; Trader Principle.
The fix is….. more government. More regulation.
Airbags? Well instead of admitting they screwed up, especially with the unbelted average male standard, they have now required ‘smart airbags’. Now sensors will try to guess the size of the person sitting there. Fat kid beware…. it will think you an adult and the airbag will kill you in a minor crash.
The solution is always more government, more complexity, more control, less choice, and greater punishments. It’s the kook who pushes for clever engineering, less control, more choice.
PS: GM tried to mandate DRLs in the 1990s in the USA. There was disorganized resistance amongst people and it actually got shot down.
Hi Brent,
In the last couple of cars I’ve test driven, the front passenger “buckle up” buzzer has been triggered by objects that weigh less than 5 pounds. Effectively, it means you cannot toss a gym bag (or even a bag from Subway) on the seat, without the got-damned car believing there is an unbuckled person occupying the seat and so – danger! danger! Safety! saaaaaaaafety!!
Been mandatory equipment on all EU-cars for over 10 years now. Some “sayfety advocates” in the EU wants to extend it to all seats and some there also want to extend them to buses.
If I place a small briefcase on the passenger seat of my 2012 Impala, the airbag switches on and the seat belt chime sounds every so often. If I reach over and fasten the passenger side seat belt, that shuts the chime up at least.
Phillip,
I turned the DRLs off on my ’99 Jetta after burning thru too many bulbs.
Maybe mine is different than yours but you remove the headlight switch and put a piece of tape over the TFL pin. The lights now only turn on when I want them. There are lots of forum posts/youtube videos on this, search “vw disable drl”.
Goodluck!
If the Switch doesn’t have the TFL pin, the DRL’s can be turned-off with a VCDS cable. The seatbelt and key chimes, auto-door locks and other stupid things can be turned-off as well. On some VAG cars, the DRL’s can be turned-off by pulling-back on the turn signal stalk and pushing down (as if you are signaling Left) and then turning on the ignition.
Fortunately, Germany does not require DRL’s however few, if any, serious Autobahn Drivers do not drive with some sort of lighting during the day – but in town they are just dumb.
Thanks FM, I’ll check that out.
I own three newer cars (2 2014s) and only one has DRLs and they can be turned off. I do not think they are as common as you think.
Hi Matt,
Very few new cars do not come with DRLs. Possibly none. The fact that they can be turned off (in some cars) is irrelevant.
the DRL’s on my ’09 Jetta ARE the low beams, and if there is a way to turn them off I haven’t found it. Have already replace both “dipped” (VW parlance) beam bulbs twice.