# City of Phila. is this legal? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672 "2011-05-12T16:58:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672/41 "2011-07-21T13:35:28Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > He probably means income taxes. > > And if you think about it, that seems about right. > About 20% is children under 16 – most do not earn enough to pay income taxes. > And 10-15% is retired people, living off Social Security & their retirement funds – many of them do not pay much income taxes either. Add in the unemployed & underemployed population, and people with really low-paying jobs, and it seems quite possible to reach 47% not paying income taxes. Yeah, the [figure has been fairly widely publicized](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/business/economy/14leonhardt.html). It remains unclear how federal income tax, or the percentage of people who pay it, relates to this incident. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672/42 "2011-07-21T13:36:22Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > It sounds like Philly has a great scam going on. There’s no reason they can’t handle uninsured or expired tags like anywhere else in the country. But why do that when there is money to be made? They don’t have a choice, really. The number of uninsured drivers and people who abandon cars on the streets was huge, and cracking down on the people who violate the law has really improved the “feel” of the city, especially in less-than-posh areas. I live in the suburbs now, but after living in the city proper for 7 years I am in support of whatever the city legally does to put a stop to that shit. Abandoned cars and people driving without proper insurance and registration clog up the roadways, trash up the streets with junk cars, make parking an even worse problem than it is, and drive up insurance costs for those of us who actually obey the laws. ---
**Author:** ![David42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@David42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David42)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672/43 "2011-07-21T13:57:18Z")
Zephyr9, you never mention whether the city sent you notice that the car was going to be sold. There might be a seizure of property without due process of law issue here if they did not send her notice the car was to be sold. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672/44 "2011-07-21T20:06:07Z")
> [@David42](#): > > Zephyr9, you never mention whether the city sent you notice that the car was going to be sold. There might be a seizure of property without due process of law issue here if they did not send her notice the car was to be sold. Notice was almost certainly sent – these usually come from an automated computer system. But it was probably mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle, at his address on the vehicle registration file. But as the OP said his daughter had not yet “got it legal”, it’s likely that the notice did not reach her. But that’s her fault; the city no doubt sent the notice to the address on file for that car. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/city-of-phila-is-this-legal/581672.md?page=2)