I suspect I ripped the council off to the tune of $400 the other day. And because they haven't got my DNA on file (AFAIK) they aint gonna catch me. Heh.
It was on the day of rubbish collection. As I walked to the bus stop early that morning, I came across a rubbish bag lying on the curb, split open and contents spewed out across the edge of the road. It was windy and the lighter bits of refuse looked like they were about to take flight. Luckily, a sturdy green bin was near. It was a bin from a private company. I always thought it annoying that we have to pay rates towards rubbish collection, and still people resort to the superior services of a private company. There's a lesson there for socialists. Anyway, that's when my lawbreaking commenced.
I picked up the rubbish from the road and placed it in the sturdy bin.
I also picked up the newspaper recycling that had been soaked with some liquid by-product of said rubbish spill and added that to the bin.
I tidied up as best I could and continued to the bus stop (made the bus with not a second to spare).
And I read in the newspaper today that a citizen was fined $100 for placing rubbish in a bin. Apparently, he was lucky, because many Councils are increasing the fine to $400.
On that reasoning, I may well have been fined too. It's hard to know with Councils. In fact, that's what the victim of the above story said. It didn't occur to him that putting a bit of litter from his car into a bin was against the law.
Which brings me to the point about bureaucracy. It grows simply because it funds itself from tax payers money. It takes what it needs, and then looks around to justify more work to itself to grow bigger and interfere more. Bureaucracy coupled with socialism is a double whammy.
The law was probably designed to stop people dumping huge quantities of rubbish into rubbish bins especially reserved for other people's rubbish. But laws are blind and given this was a regular kind of person, the full force of this law could be brought down upon him and he was made to suffer the consequences. Which is an injustice that we middle class cannot easily escape.
Some would have said when this law was proposed that it would only be applied to the sorts of people that rort the system and turn up with panel vans full of rubbish and proceed to dump 4 metric tonnes of rubbish into a 40 litre wheelie bin. But we know that's not really true. Case in point.
Fines are a strong weapon against the middle class. We are the ones that pay them. The littering fine is being increased to $400 and disturbingly, Council officers no longer need to prove there was an intention to litter and councils are allowed to keep the fines. You can be sure littering revenue will go up as we middle class people wear the cost even as more serious crimes go unpunished, or are simply ignored by those that don't give a toss.
It's all just rubbish.
Related Link: Fined for putting litter in a bin
Related link: Spot fines for littering now $400
Related Link: Councils looking at fines for not recycling
Related Link: Rate payers face a £10m recycling fine for Council's ineptitude
It was on the day of rubbish collection. As I walked to the bus stop early that morning, I came across a rubbish bag lying on the curb, split open and contents spewed out across the edge of the road. It was windy and the lighter bits of refuse looked like they were about to take flight. Luckily, a sturdy green bin was near. It was a bin from a private company. I always thought it annoying that we have to pay rates towards rubbish collection, and still people resort to the superior services of a private company. There's a lesson there for socialists. Anyway, that's when my lawbreaking commenced.
I picked up the rubbish from the road and placed it in the sturdy bin.
I also picked up the newspaper recycling that had been soaked with some liquid by-product of said rubbish spill and added that to the bin.
I tidied up as best I could and continued to the bus stop (made the bus with not a second to spare).
And I read in the newspaper today that a citizen was fined $100 for placing rubbish in a bin. Apparently, he was lucky, because many Councils are increasing the fine to $400.
On that reasoning, I may well have been fined too. It's hard to know with Councils. In fact, that's what the victim of the above story said. It didn't occur to him that putting a bit of litter from his car into a bin was against the law.
Which brings me to the point about bureaucracy. It grows simply because it funds itself from tax payers money. It takes what it needs, and then looks around to justify more work to itself to grow bigger and interfere more. Bureaucracy coupled with socialism is a double whammy.
The law was probably designed to stop people dumping huge quantities of rubbish into rubbish bins especially reserved for other people's rubbish. But laws are blind and given this was a regular kind of person, the full force of this law could be brought down upon him and he was made to suffer the consequences. Which is an injustice that we middle class cannot easily escape.
Some would have said when this law was proposed that it would only be applied to the sorts of people that rort the system and turn up with panel vans full of rubbish and proceed to dump 4 metric tonnes of rubbish into a 40 litre wheelie bin. But we know that's not really true. Case in point.
Fines are a strong weapon against the middle class. We are the ones that pay them. The littering fine is being increased to $400 and disturbingly, Council officers no longer need to prove there was an intention to litter and councils are allowed to keep the fines. You can be sure littering revenue will go up as we middle class people wear the cost even as more serious crimes go unpunished, or are simply ignored by those that don't give a toss.
It's all just rubbish.
Related Link: Fined for putting litter in a bin
Related link: Spot fines for littering now $400
Related Link: Councils looking at fines for not recycling
Related Link: Rate payers face a £10m recycling fine for Council's ineptitude
Of course fines are a weapon used against the middle class.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class are easy to track and identify and they'll pay the fines because they actually have something to lose, making them the perfect target.
if you're a lowlife on a benefit, the taxpayer will pick up the tab anyway. So we're paying their fines as well.