Money Grubbing Politicians

My family just returned from a brief vacation in Helen, Georgia. Near Unicoi State Park, Chattahoochee National Forest, and the beautiful Anna Ruby Falls, it remade itself into a Germanic "alpine" village around 1969 to build upon its tourism appeal. They celebrate Oktoberfest from mid-September until November 1st.

One fun thing we did there was ride a horse-drawn carriage through the town. During the ride I conversed with the driver, asking about the permits which were displayed in the carriage. What I learned was interesting, if rather depressing.

Each of the following are required to have a paid permit to operate within the town: the carriage driver, the horse, and the carriage. This is pure revenue for the city for doing absolutely nothing, drawn from the labor of others.

If that's not sufficiently unjust, get this: The horse's and driver's permits are tied to the carriage's; they do not apply when operating a different carriage. Perhaps that sounds merely inconvenient, until you learn that carriages with an odd permit number are allowed to operate only on odd-numbered days of the month, and even permit-numbered carriages may operate only on even-numbered days. Therefore, if a driver wants to conduct operations daily, he must own two different carriages, purchase permits for each, and pay for separate permits for himself and his horse in order to operate each! (Apparently a carriage cannot be double-permitted. Maybe a local lawmaker is involved in carriage sales?)

[Also, I learned that a carriage driver was recently ticketed for "running" (or rather "walking" for sure, the horses don't go very fast) a stop sign when no opposing traffic was present. Geez.]

Sure there are worse cases where far more money is siphoned away from productive people by force of law. This shows that it happens not only at the national level. I long for the day when Americans will wake up and say "Enough is enough!" and kick the jackals (politicians) — all of them — out on their ears.