This is the first in a series about systems in this country (or the world) which just don’t work. And instead of fixing the system, the government just throws band-aids at it (or worse, exploits it to fill the public coffers). First up - Driving.
Drive anywhere in this country and it quickly becomes apparent how many really poor drivers are out there on the roads. The problem is not cell phone use or speeding or distractions or poor manners. Those are all symptoms. The problem is education. We don’t teach people how to drive. We teach them (maybe) to control a vehicle at slow speeds, and then we give them a license and turn them loose on the roads. And then, to make things worse, we don’t really hold people accountable for their poor driving. We just fine them, raise their insurance rates, and turn them loose again. This is one of those situations where the state would rather maintain the status quo rather than rectify the problem and risk losing their cash cow. One needs only to travel to Germany to see how a government can require people to demonstrate an ability to drive safely and responsibly and then require that they continue to do so or risk serious repercussions, including a loss of their license and/or a humongous increase in insurance rates. That is why the Germans can safely drive on roads with no speed limits. (It also is because they know how to build and maintain roads, but that is another issue for another time.)
The Germans must also maintain their vehicles to a very high standard. People in the US who complain about inspections and emissions testing have no idea how easy they have it. Try getting your car through TÜV, the German inspection system. In some places in the country, including central Illinois, there is no inspection at all. You can drive around any old piece of junk even if it doesn’t have an exhaust system or decent brakes. But in typical back-ass-ward Illinois, it’s required that all children under the age of 8 must be in a car seat or booster seat. It matters not that your car has poor brakes and bald tires and is belching carbon monoxide into the passenger area while Mom is smoking up a storm and yacking on the cell phone while driving. As long as junior is strapped into his car seat on the way to soccer practice, he can inhale all the second hand smoke and exhaust fumes he can handle. Not that anyone actually obeys this law once a kid hits 5 or 6. After all, how do you prove your kid is under the age of 8? Just another idiotic band-aid law that fails to address the real safety issues.
