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Driving plans for pay-per-mile tax and the implications

Iain

Trigger warning - there is some discussion of authoritatian government below so if this is triggering for you, please look away.

I've been following some of the governments discussions on changing the road tax model to become a pay-per-mile scheme and a few things have given me pause for thought.

Legislation for this seems to be currently under development from recent news reports due to the governments inability to balance the budget.

To comply with this legislation, all cars will have to be fitted with a telemetry device to track the vehicle. It seems a logical requirement but as it is now going to be effectively tracking you in real time, most likely recording every trafic law violation and will be a great tool for the government to issue a massive number of traffic offence tickets to generate income.

Of course this will improve safety too so not necessarily a bad thing.

I'm pretty sure the control box will need to be government approved, fitted by government licensed installers and have the software that cannot be tampered with. A few more opportunities for subcontractors with politicians on their board of directors.

My suspicion is that this same box will be able to proximity sense other mobile devices and be used to track individuals through this as well, so when it comes time to arrest you for posting on social media about something the goverment isn't happy about then the police know where to get you.

Is the timing of the government digital ID introduction a co-incidence? Think about what the government will be able to do at this point. They can track you though your mobile phone, if you are driving they know everywhere you go and if you break any laws, they know how much you earn, from who and can track all transactions in your bank / Paypal / Venmo accounts etc.

Of course the arguement is that is you have done nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide.

The plan of a surveillance state then takes a huge leap foward and gives so much more power to the government to squeeze money out of you while controlling you.

Am I way off the mark here? Is the government really as nice as they claimed to be when getting you to vote for them? Do you still trust them?

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  • Iain said:
    Trigger warning - there is some discussion of authoritatian government below so if this is triggering for you, please look away.

    I mean no disrespect, but this seems to me to be an odd thing to say.  Is it wrong to be triggered by the threat of fascism?
    Or are we talking about the kind of trigger that leaves people messed up?
    Is it an autism thing, to be averse to authoritarianism?  I thought it was perfectly normal: is it more so with autistics?

  • in reply to Hairyloon

    It was brought up a while ago that it would be helpful for there to be trigger warnings on posts that some people may find difficult. It is not necessarily an autism thing but this kind of topic can affect some people's mental health etc so Iain is giving them the option to avoid the thread.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    Do you mean that we're just trying to avoid the kind of blazing row that political opinions tend to turn into?

  • in reply to Hairyloon

    I'll be honest I hadn't actually noticed it wasn't in the title. I personally would put it in the title because that means others can avoid opening the thread at all. I'm not sure that a specific rule was made for where the trigger warning should go. I think as long as the trigger warning is before a person would have started reading the thread then it's fine but I personally would probably put it in the title.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    For clarity, you say that the warning should be in the title, but here it is in the first line, I take it that's OK, and is it a case of if in doubt, post a warning?
    Or if not, then what are the guidelines?

  • in reply to Hairyloon

    No not necessarily. Ideally people will keep it to stating opinion rather than turning it into an emotionally charged argument. 

    It is more a case that there have been previous topics, not necessarily political that have caused others to get upset and report posts as they weren't fully aware of what the content was going to be until they'd read the whole thread. 

    This started a debate as to what should be censored from being posted and how it took away others freedom to discuss what they wished. It was discussed amongst the community and the winning vote was that we post topics of our choosing as long as it is within the rules but if it a topic that could cause upset we put a trigger warning.

    Some people can be very upset and anxious by political topics. Some of the suggestions and discussions here could really trigger someone's anxiety. Having the trigger warning in the title means they can avoid this anxiety by not opening the thread. But those that enjoy it are interested in such discussions can take part.

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  • in reply to Hairyloon

    No not necessarily. Ideally people will keep it to stating opinion rather than turning it into an emotionally charged argument. 

    It is more a case that there have been previous topics, not necessarily political that have caused others to get upset and report posts as they weren't fully aware of what the content was going to be until they'd read the whole thread. 

    This started a debate as to what should be censored from being posted and how it took away others freedom to discuss what they wished. It was discussed amongst the community and the winning vote was that we post topics of our choosing as long as it is within the rules but if it a topic that could cause upset we put a trigger warning.

    Some people can be very upset and anxious by political topics. Some of the suggestions and discussions here could really trigger someone's anxiety. Having the trigger warning in the title means they can avoid this anxiety by not opening the thread. But those that enjoy it are interested in such discussions can take part.

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