I modestly propose we send our local government representatives the query below and point out the injustice of being victimized by a law-enforcement that practices extortion on those they vow to "serve," A.K.A. the Department of Motor Vehicles.
It's this kind business that forces the citizen who pays its salaries to buy its product; then makes the product unavailable; then charges the customer a $10 late fee for every day he or she has using what hasn’t been given time to be delivered.
It's this kind of business that tells you it’s your responsibility to see that it’s paid when they deliberately refuse to send the bill and forms until it’s too late to mail them in.
It's that kind of business herds the public clear onto the sidewalk in front of the “Finances” Office (DVM), forcing the buyer to pick a number for the privilege of being squished into line and spending half the day there, waiting to fork over money to avoid further financial punishment.
What kind of loophole is the offer to let us pay on line? Are we required to use the Internet, whether or not we have access to it or want to go through the hassle of using it?
What kind of morality blames the customer for not recognizing what a “privilege” it is to celebrate the citizen’s birthday in serving its convenience? Is this a privilege bestowed by some petty bureaucrat, licensed to herd us like animals and rebuke and threaten us with further robbery if we dare complain?
I returned home after a week’s absence from the country to find a notice from the above thieves, advising me that I had thre days to pay for renewal of my license tag or be cited for driving without it. Aware that I was unlikely to receive the tag on time, I proceeded immediately to the DVM in New Smyrna Beach and found myself to be No. 60 in a line that was just reverting back to 00.
The office was jammed with most of these victims and the line extended out onto the sidewalk.
Informed that renewing my tags was "your responsibility." I seethed on my ride back home and mailed the required form which in other years was (as it should have been) sent at least a month in advance of its due date.
Naturally, the tag hasn’t been mailed back to me yet, so I’m stuck without transportation until it arrives. Among other things, I cannot pick up my cancer-prevention prescription at the drugstore.
But "driving is a privilege," the scam-artists argue. A "privilege" bestowed on us by some petty bureaucrat, hired at tax-payer expense to imitate the credit-card companies in forcing us into late-fee territory? A "privilege" to live in a mechanized society, denied the "privilege" of using our own means of transportation?
Driving is not a privilege; it’s a necessity. We pay for it. And being screwed for yet more payment by a law making us an offer we can’t refuse is extortion.