Government Loves Poor People So Much, It Makes More Of Them
FLORIDA–I think most libertarians can agree that traffic laws are usually arbitrary and a means for the thugs in uniform to extort money from citizens for minor infractions. Tampa Bay Times columnist Steve Bousquet wrote an article addressing how devastating the consequences for violating a traffic law can be for those struggling to make ends meet.
Bousquet writes that House Speaker Will Weatherford (R) was aghast at the frequency with which the state suspends drivers’ licenses. Nearly 700,000 Floridians were stripped of their driving privileges, and 167,000 of those suspensions weren’t even driving related.
“If you go look at the data, they didn’t pay a fine,” Weatherford said. “They forgot to show up in court. They didn’t pay their child support. There’s this snowball effect. They lose their driver’s license. Now they can’t get to work. They get pulled over on a suspended driver’s license. Now they go to jail. Now they owe $4,000. It creates poverty. It holds people down.”
The law even applies to those whose licenses don’t even exist yet. Children in Florida who frequently skip school have had their non-existent licenses suspended for truancy.
This vicious cycle affected a total of 685,489 drivers in Florida during the last fiscal year. For those who lost their licenses for failing to pay fines, they have no recourse as the law doesn’t even allow them to have “business purposes only” licenses. More licenses were suspended for failure to pay court costs than for any other reason.
Most of the people who have failed to pay their fines are earning meager salaries to begin with, and are now finding themselves virtually unable to dig themselves out of the debt the state has created. Some people are still driving with a suspended license because they have to get to work and simply can’t afford a fine. This is considered a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable with up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. A second offense could mean a year in the slammer, but for some the risk isn’t enough to overpower their very real need to earn a living.
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