SIGN OF THE TIMES!

Today, on my way to work, I noticed a car driving exactly the speed limit resulting in a rather significant traffic jam. As I passed this car, I noticed a bumper sticker that said: “Vehicle speed monitored by GPS.” Then I reflected on other recent developments. As an insurance agent, I know that many companies now offer significant discounts if you agree to having your vehicle monitored. Here is one example of how this works. This is from American Family Insurance:

Car Insurance Monitoring Devices | American Family Insurance (amfam.com)

How Do Car Monitoring Devices & Apps Work?

We all would love to know that we’re driving as safe as we can. With car monitoring systems, or telematic devices, that’s actually possible now. Vehicle monitoring devices work through an app on your smartphone that gathers and analyzes key data about the way you drive. Details like your GPS location and driving speed are all fed into a database that records your performance on the road every time you’re driving. After a period of time, your auto insurance may reduce your premium if your driving habits are found to be safe.

Now this sounds great, but then I remembered that slow moving vehicle. I couldn’t help but notice that your smart phone can now track you every place you go and provide details like: “Your GPS location and driving speed.” In theory, this would just feed data into a database, to evaluate your driving. That is bad enough, but what if we get another Jimmy Carter who decides it would be wonderful if everyone drove 55 mph. Those of you too young to remember those days would be wise to pay attention. Imagine driving from Sacramento to Los Angeles on I-5 at 55 mph. First of all, when Carter did this, the speed limit was ignored, but it did significantly lower the speed at which you got a ticket. For example, now if you drive 80 mph on I-5 odds are a lot of cars will be passing you and you are unlikely to get a speeding ticket. But when the speed limit was 55, if drove 80 mph you would definitely get a ticket.

The push back against this was so severe that the 55 mph speed limit left along with Jimmy. But now, with these new devices, someone like, say, Joe Biden, could decide to lower the speed limit to 55 mph to reduce global warming. What’s more, he could actually enforce it by just monitoring your cell phone. In addition, don’t be surprised if cars already are capable of providing this information. If your GPS can tell you where to go, it can report where you are and how fast you are moving. The technology already exists, it is probably already installed in your vehicle, and it is only a matter of time before someone decides to use this to stop global warming.

In case you doubt this, the Governor of California just signed a bill banning gas lawn mowers and weed whackers by 2024, to reduce global warming. We currently have a whole class of politicians, we call them Democrats, who definitely want to micromanage your life. You can also be sure that they will create exemptions for themselves. This reminds me of a time I was in Manhattan on business. Suddenly a whole squad of motorcycle cops showed up. They quickly blocked every side street. Then, about five minutes later, a black limousine, surrounded by other motorcycles, went by at a high rate of speed. This was followed by another squad of motorcycles, forcing following traffic to slow down. I don’t really know who was in that vehicle, but suspect it was the mayor, because the President was definitely not in Manhattan. It was certainly someone unwilling to be slowed down by the notorious Manhattan traffic jams.

The point being that people in power are very good at making exceptions for themselves. They don’t ever try to hide it. That is why they fly all over the place, in private jets, so they can lecture the rest of us regarding our carbon footprint. Now previously this was somewhat tolerable because we still had our freedom and especially our own vehicles. We could drive anywhere we want, and we could even ignore the speed limit with little risk of consequences.

There is now risk that this will change, and sooner than you think. The same people who feel they can require you to get vaccinated, whether you want it or not and whether you need it or not, will not hesitate to force you to drive slower. They may also limit where you can go. It would be so easy, just use that handy dandy GPS to stop people from traveling too far. Then they will use the same argument for mandatory vaccines, that making everyone, other than them, move slower and travel less, will save lives, and do wonders for the environment.

So, while some people saw a car, moving slowing, with a weird bumper sticker this morning, I saw a glimpse of the future and it is a very dark picture. A very sad sign of the times.

There are, however, other things that really matter. The pilots for Southwest Airlines decided enough was enough so they are fighting back against the vaccine mandate. Southwest had to cancel over 1800 flights and left people stranded all over the country. The lucky ones could drive to their next location by just renting a car and driving for about 12 hours. But others don’t have that option. Southwest blamed this on the weather and air traffic control, but miraculously this didn’t appear to impact other airlines. Newsweek bought this nonsense, but then that is hardly a surprise.

So while that bumper sticker is a sign of the times, so are all those stranded Southwest Airlines passengers. Freedom is the most contagious disease of all, and it appears to be spreading rapidly.

TDM