Back up cameras are available for approximately $80. People with young children should buy and install them{Attatches on license plate}.
I am going to go out on a limb and say the State was Florida (but it really does not matter).Tickets were being issued and upheld if even a bit of the States motto was covered in any way. On second thought I believe this was my state, AZ.
I am a parent of three young children and I do not want this camera. I keep track of my kids, and know where they are at. When I pick them up from daycare I make sure ALL of the kids are accounted for before I leave/back out.
Giving people a crutch like this will lead to more bad decisions, not paying attention, and an attitide of the camera will catch it and then I’ll stop. If you’re backing out of a drive way and a child or adult walks behind you, how much time do you have to stop? Seconds? Fractions of that?
Forget this. People need to be resposible, aware, and use their sense. Teach your kids to stay away from cars without and adult in hand. Adults need to assume that the drive doesn’t see them and plan accordingly. If you have mental impairment perhaps you should not be out walking alone.
Technology is becoming more of a hurt than a help IMHO and I would prefer less in my life.
Those child safety seats that protect your children are advances in technology too. Should we do away with those as well? After all, they just encourage parents to drive recklessly with their children in the car … or do they?
I do not use the carseat as an excuse to drive inattentively thinking the carseat will cover them in an accident. People use carseats, in one perspective, because of the other guy/event.
I concede the point that carseats and cameras cover the ‘what-if’ position. However, cameras cover a safety situation that would not exist if people were more conscience of their environment. Carseats, braking systems, airbags cover a range of safety situations that are not always within the control of the attentive driver. Of all the safety steps that could be taken to make driving safer, this is the last one on the list.
Too much technology causes more problems. I’ll also throw out the blindspot sensors on Volvos are another reliance on technology that enables bad drivers. People should look and pay attention, not rely on technology that may fail to keep them out of accidents.
MN Driver, you’re right. Let the children of inattentive parents die a violent death! They deserve no mercy!
Seriously, I agree the blind spot sensors in Volvos and the technology that helpes Mercedes vehicles not rear-end people seems excessive, but who am I to complain if it happens to save my life from one of these terrible drivers?
No, they should not. I lost this reply earlier, before you edited the second part. So here’s a shorter version.
When I was a kid and my grandparents came to visit I knew to stay away from the car as it pulled in so I would not get hit. When they left I knew to stay near my parents so I don’t get hit, my parents knew where I was so they knew I wasn’t under the tires, and my grandparents could see where I was so they knew I wasn’t under the tires.
With these cameras my parents would not start backing out of the driveway thinking the camera will help them stop in time to not hit a grandkid. They know where they are just like the above situation.
Daycare is the same way. Keep track of the little one outside with the provider and do not rely on a camera. Now is that to much to ask?
Years Of Government Intervention Into People’s Lives Have Caused Many Among Us To Look To All Levels Of It To Keep Them Safe, Provide Food, Shelter, Health Care, Etcetera.
This is causing some folks to be very much less self-reliant.
Didn’t plan on buying food ? No problem - WIC Free Lunch (Growing up I was always taught, “There’s No such thing as a free lunch.”) , Food stamps, etcetera.
No job, can’t find work after looking a few months / years ? No problem - 99 months of unemployment, welfare, housing vouchures, you name it.
Didn’t think about retiring some day ? No problemo - Social Security.
Can’t provide for your own well-being ? Medicaid, Medicare .
Don’t quite get safe driving concept ? Don’t worry about it. Government mandated back-up cameras, stability control, drunk igntion interlock, black boxes ? . . .
Let me decide which options I think are appropriate and worth the expense.
We cetainly are heading in the direction of more and more of our citizens dependent on Big Brother in their daily lives.
I don’t have a problem with wanting to help people be more safe and more comfortable. My problem is, even if I liked all this intervention, is that our government can’t afford (Government earns no money. It is beyond broke.) to keep growing, working Ponzi schemes, and getting involved in all this stuff. It can’t work. We’re circling the drain.
Sometimes people need to man-up and take some responsibility for themselves and their families.
Where do you draw the line ?
CSA
With the money we have squandered on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with the money we have wasted on the Bush tax cuts, we could have paid down the deficit, fed every hungry indigent child in the USA, and provided healthcare for every American. [i]I guess the only war Republicans won’t spend money on is the war on poverty.[/i]
I bought a new Chevy Avalanche and returned to the dealer yesterday because I couldn’t get the radio to work. The salesman explained the radio was voice activated.
‘Nelson,’ the salesman said to the radio.
The radio replied, ‘Ricky or Willie?’
‘Willie!’ he continued and ‘On The Road Again’ Came from the speakers. Then he said, ‘Ray Charles!’, and in an instant ‘Georgia on my Mind’ replaced Willie Nelson.
I drove away happy, and for the next few days, every time I’d say, ‘Beethoven,’
I’d get beautiful classical music, and if I said, ‘Beatles,’ I’d get one of their wonderful songs.
Today, some guy ran a red light and nearly creamed my new truck, but I swerved in time to avoid him.
I yelled, ‘A## H###!’
Immediately the radio responded with, ‘Which one, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, or Sarah Palin?’
Damn I love this truck.
Whitey, Money Can’t Be Wasted On Lower Tax Rates (They No Longer Can Be Construed As Cuts, But Rather More Sensible Rates And George Bush Is Long Gone).
Less tax revenue doesn’t have to be paid for. Spending needs to be cut. If I personally have less money coming in, I don’t figure out how to “pay for it”, I make cuts. I’ve dialed down my heat, switched to CFLs, try to drive less combine trips, don’t eat out, etcetera. Simple concept, really. I suppose I could get a second job to increase revenue, but government has no job, no income.
It seems at many levels of government, spending doesn’t get cut, in fact it increases and the fools ask, "How are we going to “pay” for our uncontrolled spending habit ? " So rather than cut, they take money from people (taxes) that people have earned. They should be asking, “Where are we going to cut ?”
By the way, I am as disgusted by the recent spending of both Democrats and Republicans. They didn’t cut spending, but rather put it on the tab recently, when extending unemployment benefits, rather than off-setting it with cuts in other areas. How long can one be paid for not working ?
If my children qualified for reduced or free lunch (and they may have for all I know. I’m not wealthy.), I would still continue to provide all their food. That’s my responsibility ! Free lunch isn’t free! Money is confiscated (taxes) from individuals like me, (who buy their own kids’ lunches) and gets used to buy somebody else’s kids’ lunches.
Oh, and I got at kick out of the childish truck joke, really funny. What’s not funny is out of control goverment waste and spending. We’re heading for a train wreck. Buy gold.
CSA
" I guess the only war Republicans won’t spend money on is the war on poverty."
Something’s not being done right with this war on poverty. The government’s been fighting it for decades and it’s getting worse. I think they keep raising the bar. The food stamp crowd eats better than I do. I’ve been behind them in line at the grocery store watching them spend my money on what I can’t afford without making cuts somewhere else.
CSA
We can agree on spending cuts, but I believe most of us should be paying more in taxes too. I am willing to go back to my Clinton Era tax rate of about 8.5% (of my gross income) if they will pay down the deficit with it. Personally, I don’t see paying 8.5% in federal income taxes as theft. I see it as my patriotic duty.
The reason I consider the Bush tax cuts a waste of money is that before they happened, we were on our way to paying off the deficit. I think paying down debt is money well spent, whether we are talking about the U.S. Government or my personal household finances.
Spending cuts can only get us so far, and reasonable tax rates can get us the rest of the way to being debt free, which is my goal. If I want to pay down by debt faster, it would help to increase my income.
Sure, I could cut my household budget, but only so far. Cutting some government programs will end up costing us money. For example, cutting education spending means spending more money on prisons and law enforcement. Study after study shows that states that cut education spend more on incarceration.
I guess my first post got pulled.. anyway.
In my parent's case it's the neighbor being bad parents. Their neighbor kid, he'd stop in the sidewalk portion of their driveawy -- even sit there while they're walking out to the car, and starting the car, he just continue to sit there on his tricycle. He used to park his tricycle there too. Multiple times a week, they'd have to get out and tell him, "Hey, you shouldn't stop behind running cars" and get him to move, or move his tricycle out of the way. They suggested to his dad that he should tell the kid not to do this. He didn't care! He was like "Boys will be boys". He'd let the kid run out into the street too. I guess he outgrew it despite his parents, and managed not to get run over.
I'm for performance standards personally. Rear visibility? Yeah. But buying some sedan that has good rear visibility, I shouldn't be penalized by having to buy a camera I don't need. My parents Pacifica they got recently, the rear view is RIDICULOUS, I can barely see a thing behind me. It does have a rear backup camera. Most cars seem to have adequate rear view though. It's like the requirement for 2012 for stability control -- this is penalizing people who buy a car that already handles fine because too many people buy inherently unstable vehicles such as bloated top-heavy SUVs, then try to drive them like cars. That should go too, if the feds want things to not fly out of control, set up a handling performance standard, don't mandate technology that a reasonble vehicle doesn't need.
A side anecdote -- my parents got a sofa recently, and I backed up the Pacifica so it could be loaded. Since the rear view is useless I mainly used the backup camera (plus side mirrors). You should have heard them freak out "Oh man he's not even looking back!!" and such. They were relieved when I commented I had a rear view in the dashboard. If these become mandatory it'll take a while for people to get used to that, that's for sure.Something’s not being done right with this war on poverty.
You could say the same thing about the war on terrorism, especially having not caught Bin Laden after nine years.
Whether we are talking about the war on poverty or the war on terrorism, I think the answer to poor government is good government, not no government. To continue the analogy, we can give up on catching Bin Laden, or we can try to be more effective. I prefer the “be more effective” approach to giving up.
Since I am on disability I recieved the food stamp packet in the mail so just for fun I ran the numbers, I would get a bit under 25.00 a week (my Social Security Disability is right at $1000.00 a month). I don’t think I would be buying food that you can’t afford on that 100.00 a month (unless I only wanted too eat 4 days of the month).
I had a history Professor point out it was the “dems” holding the Presidency every time the US entered a war (well before the current two).
I Don’t Know The Specifics Of The Program, Only My Observions And Those Of A Family Friend Who Clerks A Save-A-Lot store. She Hadn’t Noticed The Phenomenon Unil It Was Dicussed And She Started Observing. Then She Had The Same Reaction.
CSA
In CSA’s defense, I have seen what he is talking about. One late night I was in a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and there were really long lines of people there and the shelves were pretty bare in the grocery part of the store. I asked my friend what was going on, and he said the food stamp money (now put on a debit card), was expiring for these people, so they were stocking up. I noticed many of them were buying items I consider luxury items, like expensive brand name sauces, expensive cuts of meat, and frozen pizzas, instead of buying staple items, like store brand sauces, poultry, and fresh vegetables. It irked me that taxpayer money was being used for more than what was necessary, but I am not sure how you could regulate that kind of thing without letting children go hungry.
Have seen them for some years now in cheap mail-order catalogs (HeartlandAmerica is one that I know of). I forget the cost, but it wasn’t much above $80, and was supposedly plug-and-play. I never installed one, so I can’t tell if they work or not. But I entirely agree that the most dangerous automotive component is the loose nut behind the steering wheel.
Why don’t we just say “if you take public funds you lose all decision making rights regarding all aspects of your life and we have the right to come in your home and check the fridge and see if you are spending wisey. You are not allowed to have tobacco or alcohol in you house,cable TV is forbidden as well as books or newspapers (as you can go to the library) and showers only every other day”. That ought to make some think twice about signing up. Remember my type of humor before you get all excited.
When I go shopping, and I buy eggs, I see a sign next to the eggs that says “WIC approved.” The sign isn’t next to the frozen pizza or the expensive steaks. Why shouldn’t it be the same for food stamps? Do you really think your tax dollars should be spent on frozen pizza instead of the ingredients to make pizza cheaply?
Personally, I think buying a newspaper would be a good use of such money. It would cost less than a dollar a day, and studies have shown that families where the cycle of poverty is repeated don’t have books and newspapers in the home. Many books can be had cheaply or for free on a permanent basis (not on loan) when libraries get rid of their old books, at garage sales, and at thrift stores.