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Sounds like the normal thing in China. Make something illegal, don't enforce it, if someone's saying something you don't like then enforce it specifically again
by dageshi 11y ago
Sounds like the normal thing in China. Make something illegal, don't enforce it, if someone's saying something you don't like then enforce it specifically against them, keeps everyone else in line.
- pkaye 11y agoSelective enforcement of laws in very common in many countries. If they enforce is too harshly then people will protest. For example exceeding the speed limit while driving.
- bsder 11y agoHarsh enforcement also causes their revenue to drop. Several of the towns which depended upon speed traps for their funding found out that the Internet is a good resource for letting people know to avoid an area. This will be interesting when self-driving cars don't ever disobey traffic laws.
- restalis 11y ago"This will be interesting when self-driving cars don't ever disobey traffic laws." It will be even more interesting when the passed laws and administrative acts will be automatically checked and validated (by something other than humans) so that fining won't be for addressing some revenue deficit but for actually preventing harmful phenomena!
- jimbokun 11y agoHadn't thought about this before your comment, but this could be a reason for continuing to drive themselves. If they are willing to exceed the speed limit, they can get to their destination faster than a self driving car with speed limit enforced by software.
- pkaye 11y agoSay you are driving 10 mph over the speed limit on a 60 mph highway for an hour, the maximum time savings is less than 10 minutes out of an hour. If the trip is shorter or you have stop, turns, traffic, the savings are even less. So in most cases except long distance drives, the savings are minimal. It is just that we are all impatient.
- bittercynic 11y ago10 minutes seems like a pretty substantial amount of time to me.
- pkaye 11y agoSure but it that is the best case. In my own experience, traffic can impact those numbers substantially. And just some bad luck with traffic signals can eliminate most of those savings as the slow/fast cars tend to get synchronized. Just the other day I was driving down the narrow roads of a nearby hill and there is a section with single lanes with lots of traffic moving at 35 mph. One lady comes weaving down the traffic on both sides to get in front of the crowd with a net savings until when the lanes opened up of 30 seconds. So much risk to everyone for what little benefit.
- rorykoehler 11y agoActually you are wasting 50 minutes in this scenario as you could have used the time not driving yourself to do something productive/enjoyable.
- mehwoot 11y agoKind of. I mean theoretically you could say the same about a train, but I still see most of the time I spend on a train as wasted even though I don't have to drive the thing.
- cfreeman 11y agoUnless I was under some big time crunch, I would gladly trade that amount of time for the luxury of being driven on a long roadtrip.
- HillaryBriss 11y agoKill the self-driving car to scare the robot
- Joof 11y agoSelf-driving cars can go faster more safely; presumably speed limits would eventually increase.
- n0us 11y agoThis happened near where I live. There was a small bridge under construction in an otherwise unremarkable county where it is common practice to speed 10 over on the highway, so 65 mph actual speed. They dragged on the construction for more than a year making barely any progress so that they could keep the construction zone open. (2x fines) The bridge was crossing a ravine at the bottom of a hill so they just kept a couple cops parked there every day and pulled over everyone with an out of state license plate all day and the county made millions. Eventually people caught on and sued. Bridge was finished nearly immediately after that.
- zdean 11y agoThis was a problem in Texas, so they passed a law to curb the abuse. The small towns affected got smart and worked around the law anyways: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-613081 http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-613081
- woobar 11y agoNot just Internet. When I first saw this AAA billboard in FL, I thought it's a prank. But it is not, and it warns about one of the America's worst speed traps. Google Street view: https://goo.gl/VwIadH https://goo.gl/VwIadH
- deciplex 11y agoIt's more common in countries where rule of law has broken down, for exactly the reason dageshi is talking about: you can make the laws harsh and as long as they are broadly not enforced people will not care, but it gives you cover to go after your domestic enemies.
- Outdoorsman 11y ago"selective enforcement" is an interesting concept... I have a neighbor (lives across the lake from me) who is a retired police officer...23 years on the job... I asked him once if there was any truth to the rumor that traffic cops had to meet a quota... He said, "Not in so many words...every now and then the Captain, during the shift briefing would say, "Boys, I need to see some paper" and we all knew what he meant."
- datburg 11y agoSelective enforcement has a very different meaning in my country. I mean they force us to pay debilitating bills for electricity but they don't care that 11 years ago's 24/7 availability is now as random as rolling dice. We have to pay taxes for the city when we have been suffering of garbage filling our roads, only to end with them to recollect the waste and throw it in our city historic river. They patch things just for the corruption councils to get another day to play or be played with like a broken pawn. It is still the coolest place if you do not mind assassinations, bombings, mafias, world powers, nightclubs you need to reserve a table at for 10 grands to get in, we protest about everything, we speak words from 3 languages in every other sentence, and have the best food. We can easily hit the beach and 20 minutes ski on awesome slopes this time of the year. We love each other but I hate hearing my neighbor complain about getting 1/200 of my bill when I am sure they steal electricity illegally. But with their background, connections, and stares, I am good.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y agoIt depends on the department. I small town America the police are under more pressure to act as revenue generators.
- bsder 11y agoAnd, presumably, this is an attempt to head off unrest caused by the slumping economy.
- kafkaesq 11y agoJust like the way many companies work with regard to behavior policies (recreational internet browsing, showing up on time, etc). You know, to engender trust, respect, loyalty.
- chatmasta 11y agoYes, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. ;) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_gao,_Huangdi_yuan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_gao,_Huangdi_yuan
- narag 11y agoThose who know don't care and those who care don't know.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoMountains?
- eggy 11y agoYes, the variant is 'the mountains are high' versus 'heaven is high' in the Chinese saying quoted above. The saying 'While the cat's away, the mice will play.' is along similar lines.
- HillaryBriss 11y agoKill the chicken to scare the monkey. http://www.studychineseinchina.com/community/knowledge-base/33-knowledge-base/559-chinese-idiom-sha-ji-j-ng-hou#.VsdMkSArJjU http://www.studychineseinchina.com/community/knowledge-base/...
- merpnderp 11y agoOften how administrations play favorites from corporate backers. If anyone breaks the law then you have to in order to stay competitive. But now if you speak your mind the EPA/FDA/whomever shows up.
- mavdi 11y agoThis isn't exclusive to China. Many western countries have followed suit.
- justinclift 11y agoReferences?
- dheera 11y agoThis is pretty close to the situation in the US with patent law. It's technically illegal to make something with a round corner because that's Apple's patent. If you piss off Apple, they'll try to enforce it. If you don't piss them off, they won't care. The law will side with Apple because they have better lawyers than you do.
- mineshaftgap 11y agoHoly fuck people get confused. Or maybe it is intentional.
- greeneggs 11y agoThe World Press Freedom Index [1] might be a good place to start exploring. You can click on individual countries to see trends. However, I have a hard time getting more details from the site. [1] http://index.rsf.org/ http://index.rsf.org/
- longcheng 11y agowhen I see China being the second to the last in the list, I have to say Beijing is doing the right thing to keep this kind of BS out of its boundary.
- Mikeb85 11y agohttp://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/mcewen07.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/publications/reports/mcewen07.htm The above is just an article published to a government website. And of course in Canada there are limits to foreign ownership of media outlets (foreign ownership cannot be majority), as well as foreign content in media.
- sharetea 11y agoechoing what vpalan2 said below: "If I wanted to do massive, irreparable harm to China, this is the law I would pass. And yet, they have done this willingly to themselves, without hesitation or incident." These aren't the smart engineering politicians with a 10 year view China has foisted its fable onto the world. These are the corrupt paranoid politicians who know they are one mass protest away from having all their families disposed. These are fat and lazy billionnaires who have siphoned off local schools, hospitals, people, environments, and is about to abscond with riches. These are the people that see their debt-fueled economy collapsing, and know there's no more workers to be paid in pennies to be exploited. "In total, 106 members of China's National People's Congress and 97 members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, are on Hurun's China Rich List. Their combined wealth hits $463.8 billion. By comparison, the median wealth of American politicians was just over $1 million in 2013, according to CNN Money. " http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-politicians-are-rich-2015-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-politicians-are-rich-...
- mkaziz 11y agoYour quote compares the combined wealth of Chinese politicians with the median wealth of American politicians. That's a misleading statistic if I ever saw one.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tomtang0514 11y agoIn addition, it's the wealth of the very top level politicians in China vs median wealth of all politicians (If I understand correctly) in US. A fair comparison should be the senators and representatives.
- chrischen 11y agoThe OP must have worked for the Chinese propaganda department!
- deleted 11y ago
- ferentchak 11y agoIt's the normal thing to do in the States too. Quote stolen from another thread: "Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age of beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one 'makes' them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted-and you create a nation of law-breakers and then you cash in on the guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." --Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
- pmarreck 11y agoand with that, I suddenly regret not reading me some Ayn Rand
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- empath75 11y agoNo, you're better off.
- 1024core 11y agoWriting her off completely is also wrong. While I may not agree with much of what she said, I do agree with that paragraph. Case in point: the Civil Asset Forfeiture "law"s.
- nikdaheratik 11y agoHer writing is very problematic and her ideas seem to fall down a bit when trying to use them outside of her authorial universe. To me, it's like a literary Rube Goldberg device where it looks cool on the page, but seems impractical and kind of unhelpful as a way to live your life.