My Day In Court

“So I am eligible for traffic school.”

“Yes, it’s up to the judge and you were only 2 miles over the limit and you have no previous tickets so I’ll give you traffic school if you want it.”

“But if I contest the ticket and lose I won’t get traffic school or the reduced fine?”

“Well, yes and no. Nobody’s punished for contesting their citation, but you won’t be rewarded for settling early either, so the offer may not be available any longer.”

“So with all those years of school it took to become a judge they never taught you that taking away a “reward” is the same damn thing as punishing?” is what I wanted to say. Then I wanted to stick my foot up his ass and tell him, “I’m not punishing you for being a dumbass, I’m just not rewarding you with the removal of my foot.”

I took traffic school, and while I’m in line waiting to pay my ticket there’s a couple in front of me that want to waste everyone’s time by arguing about the court’s traffic school administration fee. “So why do we have to pay you and pay the traffic school?” “It’s an administration fee. Everyone has to pay it.” “Where’s that money go? I want to know where that money goes!”

I thought about answering his question. It goes the same place all the money goes. Into the pockets of the rich. But then I would have to explain further. Do you know how they decide the speed limit? It has nothing to do with our safety or what we want. If they were concerned about our safety they could set the speed limit at 35 mph and make it illegal to manufacture cars that go any faster, and auto fatalities would be eliminated. But they’re not interested in our safety. They set up some committee and put “federal” and “highway” somewhere in the name, then these people use economic analysis to determine the best speed. They give each person’s life a monetary value (what the reduction in workforce will cost the country) and when the number of deaths ends up costing the same as the increased productivity of a higher speed limit, that’s where the limit is set. The way economic growth is measured has nothing to do with the lives of the average person, it’s basically synonymous with investor growth, so the money eventually ends up in the hands of the rich.

The police have no interest in your safety either. Studies have shown that the likelihood of accidents is increased when people drive faster than the mean speed of traffic. So if police were interested in our safety they would be concentrating on crowded freeways and the people who constantly swerve through them with nary an officer in sight. Instead they sit out in the middle of nowhere, on an empty highway, where they know people will be speeding safely because there’s no one else around, which is exactly how I got my ticket. What are they interested in? Racking up as much money as possible. Expanding, like a cancerous growth, gaining more and more control over people, which is essentially consolidating the power of the rich, since they are ultimately in control of the government, and if that’s not obvious to you, I’ll have to explain that another time.

While I’m on the subject I have to say internet traffic school is even more of a joke than real traffic school. It’s supposed to be eight hours long but any intelligent person will realize they don’t actually have to do the readings since they get an infinite number of chances at passing the test, and the questions repeat. I finished in 42 minutes, including sign up. It’s a complete racket for the government and the school. The government get’s their traffic school administration fee of $65 for doing absolutely nothing, and the traffic school’s costs are limited to them having to host their site and mail out a certificate (so their operating costs are probably less than $100 a month) then they just sit back and collect $25 a pop from people who got bullshit tickets and don’t want to get double fucked by the insurance company. Why doesn’t everyone set up a traffic school site and rake in the money, which would also drive the cost down? Well, the court has a list of acceptable schools. How do schools make the list? Amidst the stench of the mile high pile of bullshit, I detect the faint smell of kickbacks.