Comment And hope you, as owner, don't get sued. (Score 0) 195
Woman rents out her car via RelayRides, someone gets killed while driving her car, she may end up getting personally sued.
Woman rents out her car via RelayRides, someone gets killed while driving her car, she may end up getting personally sued.
You should be a little less paranoid about GPS.
Just because you can find the time and your position using GPS doesn't mean someone can track where you are.
A GPS device is a receiver, not a transmitter.
GPS satellites constantly broadcast the time, and their location. A the GPS in the device takes this data from several (4+) satellites, does the math, and calculates the position.
For this to work the time has to be absolutely correct. So you can use the time to set your clock.
Without some sort of transmitter (like a phone with its data connection, or some sort of dedicated transmitter built into the same device) no one has any possibility of knowing where you are.
All Eternal September. Damned AOLers. *sheds a tear*
Not sure why this was modded "funny": it should have been modded "insightful".
Compensation for what? In the modern Western world, quaint notions of property rights and due process have been deprecated in favor of civil forfeiture, eminent domain for transfer to other private parties, stare decisis, and political connections.
You can't really own property anymore so much as lease it from the government for a yearly fee. (If you disagree with this viewpoint, try not paying your property taxes: then you'll find out who the real owner is.) Therefore, since the government owns all your stuff anyway, they have no need to compensate you for damages, since the government only damaged their own stuff.
</snark>
In particular, the thing that I like better in Mass. is the new Marijuana laws. It is one of the few states in the union that doesn't put you in jail for possession of a plant. This could change of course
:-(
I think NH is much more likely to decriminalize marijuana sometime in the near future than MA is to *ever* decriminalize legal gun possession (snark), or lower its taxes, or repeal the zoning laws that make it so expensive to live near the wealthy people who elect the zoning boards.
Besides, I am willing to assert without evidence that tens of thousands of NH residents smoke up on a regular basis without anyone knowing. It isn't the best situation because of course it would be better if the state recognized an individual's right to engage in *any* peaceful behavior, but as a practical matter you can already exercise your right to love you, Mary-jane...
More importantly, there is actually a non-trivial percentage of people in NH who understand and believe in liberty: the same simply isn't true of MA, partly because NH is so close and attracts them.
I would like more specifics, though I'm not going to be a tool asking you.
In MA:
(1) Gun laws are ridiculous. Not worst in the nation IMO, but certainly in the bottom five. You want that Kimber
(2) Housing is way too expensive, mostly because of local zoning ordinances that restrict the density of housing. I'd love to live within a walk or a 10-15 minute T ride from where I work, for instance, but I'm not going to pay $500K for a 1400 square foot condo: it just ain't gonna happen. And there's no reason for it to be that way except for the artificial scarcity of housing within the Cambridge/Somerville/Boston/Arlington city limits.
(3) Local government is openly corrupt. Virtually every politically-connected demographicâ"the unions, the politicians, cops, large corporations, and many of the rich local property ownersâ"colludes to transfer wealth from everyone else to themselves. Taxes don't primarily go toward public goods and common services. My total tax burden is roughly 50% than it would be were I living in NH, and yet the roads in MA (for instance) are absolute shite. I've already had to replace one $500 rim from striking a huge pothole at night this year. While it's perfectly rational that things would work this way under a democracy, there's no excuse for it when there's so much waste, fraud, and pork to remove from the budget.
(4) 12% short term capital gains tax. OMFG. That alone cost me a huge amount of money over the past two years.
That's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
The downsides to NH from friends seem to be (a) the state-owned liquor stores have a generally poor selection, though they can order what you want; (b) getting zoning approval for houses outside of established neighborhoods is a PITA because they require you to upgrade the road if it isn't class V or better; (c) property taxes are generally higher than in MA. In return, they get a part-time legislature; generally more responsive local government; less local- and state-level corruption; less sprawl and more natural areas; better roads; and lower overall taxes.
As a long time MA resident, I find it's still better than MA... do you not agree? If you disagree, I'm honestly curious to know why.
The GP has a unique requirement:
Have car at my disposal for errands or to go to hockey after work
Often, bringing a large and smelly hockey bag onto the subway is considered rude to other passengers.
FYP.
And renting a locker at his local rink (if they even make this option available) would further add to the cost.
They don't, and even if they did, I play at different rinks. Keeping my equipment at work would be an option if I didn't have 10:30 games or Sunday games near my house. Buying two sets of equipment is potentially a solution to that, but there's only so far down the road of the absurd that I'm willing to go.
No sir, public transportation is not as convenient as cars. When your trunk serves as a personal storage locker... it make carrying stuff that doesn't fit in a small backpack more attractive to have a car.
QFT.
And it didn't work for me. Here's the comparison:
Driving:
35 minutes door to door
$200/mo for parking + $100/mo for gas @ $2.50/gallon = $300/mo
Have car at my disposal for errands or to go to hockey after work
Can leave whenever I'm done, and have freedom to stay after work with friends
Commuter rail:
1:05 door to door
$80/mo for parking at the commuter rail station (2 miles away) + $150/mo for the commuter rail pass = $230/mo
No car after work, which means I have to go home first to do things, wasting even more time
Have to leave at particular times: if I miss the 7:30 train, for instance, it's 90 minutes until the next one
I need a car in either case because there's no zipcar anywhere near where I live and I need a car to perform errands and to cart myself to/from hockey. So I'm not factoring the cost of the car itself into either, though there is an additional penalty on driving for added wear and tear on the car.
So commuter rail is slightly less expensive in dollars per commute, but that doesn't come anywhere close to compensating me for the wasted time and lack of convenience.
I'll drive, thank you.
Today is a good day for information-gathering. Read someone else's mail file.