There is the very slight upside of not having whatever the effort is of paying, the second year. So some minutes of your labour saved
In the TV series, Forever Knight, vampires roam Canada (at least) and live for hundreds of years. The protagonist, Nick Knight, is seeking redemption for centuries of killing others by not only switching to cow’s blood, but also becoming a homicide detective in the Toronto PD.
In a 12th century flashback, he receives 10,000 florins and I said, “Unless he’s blown it on hookers and blow, he has to be rolling in money today,” then, pedant that I am, fired up a spreadsheet and found yeah, even at 2% interest, after 800 years it adds up.
At one point you get a glimpse of the balance in his savings account, It was over $400-million.
Sure, but turning poor people into immortal vampires isn’t good fiscal policy.
It takes maybe 2-3 minutes to pay. I waste more than that waiting for a table/waiting to order/waiting for my food in a restaurant or waiting for a show or movie to start, or stuck 3 cycles deep at a traffic light in rush hour. It’s literally the time of one less solitaire game a year. Hardly what I’d call a real time savings.
I’m not sure, but in the context I think was this presented. The last time I had my Driver’s License (and Universal Identification) renewed, they offered a four year, and the new eight year option. As a poor person I could only opt for the 4 year alternative, brcause that was all the money I had. Saving up.
I would much prefer the longterm option in covienence, but it was more than double, hard to make that pricepoint. 8
Yes, I think this privileged, and iniquitous, payment for unique I.D. coupled with driving priveleges is divergent in legalties. Not at all equal or legal egal. Making privelege of law.
Monies priveleges. Our justice only hears monied offerings. Dollars for “agendas” and “indulgences”.
Aah, here it would involve a trip to the traffic department, for most people.
Nope, online or mail it in. I guess I could go to the DMV but I never have.
The stoopit thing they did a few years back as a cost savings for them is if you do it online they no longer send you heavy, almost card stock paper registration in the mail, you are supposed to print it yourself. a) a lot of people don’t have a printer anymore & b) regular printer paper tends to fall apart in the wallet after a year - I was always told that you never leave that in the glove box; if your car is stolen & the car thief gets pulled over he might just get away with it if he has all of the proper paperwork with him.
I don’t even bother to print it anymore, if I get pulled over I know it’s legit in their computer which is much better than a scrap of paper that I hand them.
Be careful about lamination.
Interesting point that lotta people don’t own printers anymore. We’ve passed through the era where everyone (of the middle class) has a fully equipped home office to the era where everyone has a pocket supercomputer instead.
Be careful about not having it in hard copy at all; in at least some states not having paper in possession is a separate offense from not having valid registration in the Big Computer.
As well, not all states can query all other states’ computers in real time. You might spend an uncomfortable hour roadside in Bumfuque AL awaiting a fax to the Alabama state highway patrol HQ from your home state registration bureau
You might try printing it and leaving it under the carpet in the trunk or something. Not likely your putative car thieves will a) pick your car, b) locate the registration right away, and c) get pulled over.
A few years back Colorado started printing two copies of the registration receipt: one with a home address, and one without. The one without is for leaving in the car, and the one with is for your own records (and so the registration mail can be delivered). The registration information left in the car doesn’t provide much information (other than registration date) that isn’t available by simply being in possession of the car—make, color, year, VIN, etc.
I’m not sure if it was at the same time, but another thing they started doing was printing the license plate number on the year sticker for the plate. I’m not sure if it cuts down on stealing the stickers, but it certainly makes detecting a stolen one much simpler.
I hear you but my (limited) experience is that out of state, especially from a non-contiguous state you’re usually given some leeway; partially because your requirements are from your home state & partially because the cop may not know your state’s requirements. My state has a single/rear license plate, I can’t, or at least shouldn’t be cited for not having a front license plate in AL. Some states allow electronic insurance while others don’t If my home state allows that I shouldn’t be cited for not having paper insurance docs in another state.
I can honestly tell the Bumfuque, AL PD that my state doesn’t send paper registrations anymore. Yes, I am supposed to supply my own but they probably don’t know that.
They’re also only supposed to detain you for a reasonable amount of time to complete the stop. If their computers are down or they’re having a hard time contacting another state they should let you go; whether the cop will is another story. If you’re polite with the cop & not an a-hole I bet you could talk your way into driving away after x minutes.
They stopped stickers at the same time they made us print our own registration. Stopping printing the stickers saved the state $1.1 mil/year but stopping the one-ounce first-class mailings of stickers & registrations saved them $2 mil.
My Canadian province charges $100 up front for a 5 year drivers licence. $25/year if you pay annually so the “upfronters” (me included) save $25.
And take the personal property tax we had to pay on our cars. I could opt out by not buying a car but even the state admits it is a tax.