Hypocrisy or Consistency?

[Updates below.]

Back in 2003, I openly wondered if I was a criminal for not getting my car legally inspected on time. I did eventually take care of that to avoid being bugged by the police and fined by the courts.

A year later, got notice to get my car re-registered. Truth be told, I went online at the Texas DPS website and paid to update my registration, but I lost the receipt and I never heard back from them again.

Then a few months after that, prompted by a Jay Jardine post, I pondered a hypothetical situation where I could test to see if being costly to govern might be feasible. In it, I figured a number of things the police could nail to me if they caught me driving home from a friend's place:

I'm driving home from a friend's house after having three Lone Star beers and a few bong hits over a period of two hours. I'm driving home at my usual velocity, which is to say 10 to 15 miles over the speed limit. I'm spotted by a cop and pulled over. Imagine what I face now:

1. A misdemeanor (< $200) for not getting my car re-inspected
   
2. A misdemeanor (< $200) for not getting my car re-registered
   
3. The cost of the speeding ticket which varies depending on the mood of the officer and whether or not I've taken the safety course in a year:
   • Driver Safety Course: $95.00
     
   • Speeding - up to 25 MPH over speed limit: $236.00
     
   • Speeding - up to 10 MPH over speed limit: $146.00
     
   • Failure to respond on or before court date: $191.00
     
     1. Arrest warrant fee charged for the above: $50.00
        
     2. Denial of driver's license renewal DPS fee for the above: $30.00
   
   
4. If the cop smells beer on me and asks me to take a breathalyzer test, I am "subject to an automatic 180-day driver's license suspension" if I refuse to comply
   
5. If the cop decides to bust me for "intoxication" due to detecting marijuana on me, I face the following possible penalties for a first DWI offense:
   • up to a $2,000 fine
     
   • 72 hours to 180 days in jail
     
   • driver's license suspension: 90 days to 1 year

A pretty damn impressive list of shit to deal with, all for doing something I've done hundreds of times without inflicting pain or causing damage.

Both my inspection sticker and registration sticker expired last year around August and September. I simply ignored this glaring lack of obedience to the state of Texas and went about my business.

My father is a deputy sheriff in Comal County and we've tangled over the law in the past. I go down to see them in New Braunfels once or twice a month. During one of those visits near the end of last year, Father apparently did a quick tour of the 2002 Volkswagen Golf TDI I drive and discovered what could only be described as criminal behavior!

So he began to nag me about "taking care of business" and whether or not my "car chores" had been completed. For the months leading up to December, I was able to brush him off with vague explanations about getting it done when I wasn't busy buying and moving into my new house or telling him I was waiting on my registration to arrive in the mail since I did that online. Well, one night at dinner he felt like comparing my story to what DPS had on file, so he literally called in my license plate number to the county dispatch and asked what the status on my registration was. To my simultaneous dismay and disgust, it came back simply as expired. Thus, the "dialogue" between us continued.

However, it took a turn at this point. My father is a master of the verbal art of delivering a pointed opinion without directly saying it to your face, literally or figuratively. I have to say I learned a great deal of my sarcasm from him. So it came as no shock to me when he began to refer to the TDI as "our car" rather than "Charles's car" or "his car."

The TDI was purchased at the beginning of September, 2001 after I spent the previous month scouring the inventory of any Texas Volkswagen dealer within 200 miles for the new '02 model year. I knew that I wouldn't be paying for the cost of the car upfront. My dad told me he was going to liquidate most of an investment account set up by his late older brother (originally intended to pay for my college education) to cover the price, which topped $16,000. The initial agreement was for me to mail my mother a $100 check once a month for a few years (I think for 5) and then the Golf would formally pass to me. As a reflection of this, the car is jointly titled in our name.

Over the years, the car has not been without it's miscellaneous expenses:

1. In December of 2002, someone stole my car stereo and my insurance replaced something my father spent $300+ on.
   
2. This timeline of automotive doom details other expenses incurred from December 2002 through January 2003. Father pays for two new tires.
   
3. I upgraded the Golf's sound system with a subwoofer and amp that came from some certificates of deposit I cashed in. They were bought by my dad years ago and had matured.
   
4. After getting trashed at a party, I drive the Golf over a curb and brush against a telephone pole, causing damage. Dad helped with what wasn't covered by insurance.
   
5. Then the Golf developed transmission problems. Total costs, including rental car? $1,400 and though I took the hit and maxed out my credit card and depleted my checking account, my dad reimbursed me for most of it.
   
6. Somewhere in there, he also paid for a new set of tires.

I'll be plain at this point. My father has put far, far more money into this car than I have. He bought it for me with money entrusted to him. In addition, he also pays the Shell/Texaco gas card I use and for the one or two maintenance visits at the dealership that exceed $200.^*

I wanted to lay this out because I want to establish the ownership of the car because it was entering into the running argument we were having over the registration and inspection. Unfortunately, that argument came to a head during Christmas when the bulk of my immediate Canadian relatives came down.

The eighteen of us were eating in San Antonio and I was sitting in front of Aunt Penny with her husband at the end of the long table holding us all. Before dinner was served, he walked by and asked how "our" car was doing and if I'd "taken care of business yet." By this time, I had grown tired of him bothering me about it and intended to stop fucking around and actually argue what I really thought: that as someone who values individuals and their right to their property, the state has no business whatsoever of telling me to register and inspect my car. That was what I wanted to avoid, but the fraud of my excuses over the process of getting those things done was haunting me more and more.

But that argument was not one I wanted in a public place while out with family and friends during the holidays. So I told him the truth: "Dad, this is an argument I want to save for later. Now is not the right time." I had to repeat myself over the noise of the other patrons of the restaurant and my Aunt Penny overheard me. To my discomfort, she asked me what the fuss was about. I waited until my dad left and gave her the watered-down version: he wanted me to get the Golf inspected and registered and I thought I shouldn't have to.

So she asked the obvious question: "Why?"

The details of the heated and attention-grabbed argument that followed are not important. It didn't take long at all for the subject to be changed from state vehicle laws to the nature of rights and the government. She figured out after a while that I "sounded like an anarchist" and I just gave up trying to cloak myself and just came out and said, "yes." Round 2 followed, and the rest of the table had almost gone silent as she and I went back and forth. The primary point of contention: smoking bans. She has asthma and was vociferously in favor of them in order to protect her health. She took it personally that I was against them on the grounds of individual freedom.

Well, the dinner ended and so did the argument. I guess after calling me and my ideas "stupid," "irrational," and "impractical" (among other things) and being unable to really address my central point, she realized a truce was better than continuing on. I accepted and waited for everyone else to get ready to leave. While we walked out, one of my sisters and one of my younger cousins complimented me on my debating ability and thought I'd trounced her. I just wanted to get away from everyone and go home to relax with something other than Mexican beer.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten Aunt Penny and her husband (who had mostly stayed quiet during the debate) were riding with my parents back home to New Braunfels. As I drove there with a close friend and the two cousins who are my age, we pondered the drama going on in my dad's Explorer. It didn't take long to find out.

He confronted me two days later and we had the talk I should have had months ago. In it, he implied that if I wasn't going to update the two decals, the car would be taken away from me. It wasn't an argument because we just explained our positions on the issue, but he was deeply skeptical of mine, up to and including, I am disappointed to admit, the very same kinds of crap non-arguments against stateless societies I run into online. We parted that night and I spent the next week with larger things on my mind: a new female friend, moving in to the new house and unpacking, renovating a few things there, and coordinating a New Year's Eve party to break in the place and introduce my friends to it.

But after that all ended, the subject returned to my thoughts. How best to resolve this clash? I remain as against the act of registering my car and having it inspected at the whim of the government as ever and my dad won't back down. Where is the solution that allows me to remain (at least somewhat) true to my principles and defuse the ticking domestic time bomb?

The answer to this, I decided, is related to the costs of the car as I described above. Do I actually "own" the car? I figure I don't. My father used a great deal of his money to pay for it and the vast majority of expenses I've incurred since then. Granted, I have paid for most of my car washes and scheduled maintenance stops at the VW garage. But that doesn't compare to what he's voluntarily invested.

Did I obtain ownership when I became the primary user, in essence homesteading my way into possession? There was no agreement to do so. Obviously, my father had no intention of acting as an owner in the day-to-day activities of the vehicle's operation and maintenance. I literally assumed control of the car. But it is clear now that with his renewed interest on who owns what and his threat to take the car back; he thinks he has the higher authority, which means he thought the car came with strings attached.

As he was the first owner of the car (even though I drove it home from the dealership), he ought to set the terms for the car's transfer into another's hands. I see now that the conflict we've gone through lately is a classic case of two entities fighting over property rights to some object. Thus, my philosophy, assuming it is correct and non-contradictory should have an answer to the problem.

That answer is: respect the wishes of the owner.

So I told my dad he won. I would get the car inspected and take him up on his offer to register it through police back-channels for me. Here is the e-mail I sent:

Like I said last night, I will get the Golf inspected and re-registered. I will try to get the inspection done before the end of the week and get the registration paperwork moving before the end of next week.

I am doing this because you and Mom are, in my book, the technical owners of the car. You paid for the vast bulk of the price and I hardly repaid a tenth of what I owe. Therefore, since this is more your car than mine and you want these done, I will take care of the above items.

However, I am not doing this because I think cars should be inspected for and registered with the state. I will emphatically argue this with you until the sun comes up. I did not refuse to do these things to "make a statement" even though I've written about it on my website a few times. I did this because I think I am right and if principles are to mean anything, they need to at least be followed through occasionally in real life and certainly beyond one's keyboard and mouth. The consequences of doing so are painfully aware to me and those consequences are precisely why I oppose this business in the first place.

So, if you can, I would like to know exactly how much I owe you and Mom, and specifically how much I owe you for the Golf. I remember you once gave me a figure of $8,000-$6,000 this time last year and I would like an update. Once I have this figure, I will begin paying you back for your generosity. At some point in the future, I will have my car debt paid off. When that occurs, I will operate and maintain the car as I see fit. If you object to this, then you might as well take the car away from me, because I think repayment and full ownership are the only reasonable ways out of our current disagreement.

He responded back and asked to be considered the full owner. I agreed. A few days later, he offered me a deal: I could pay him a certain amount per year for three years and then take full possession of the car or wait that timeframe plus a few years and then take full possession. If I didn't give him enough money during a year to meet the amount he specified, he'd count it towards the next.

I agreed.

His Golf has been inspected by a licensed and registered Texas vehicle inspector and I paid the fee to do so. He re-registered his car and covered that fee. Both stickers have been on my windshield for over a week. I no longer tense up when I pass police on the highway. I no longer worry about dinner being ruined at my parents' house randomly over this political disagreement.

So I ask you if you think I have abandoned my principle and endorsed the very thing I loathe. To some, this may seem like ridiculously trivial shit, pointless hand-wringing over something so simple to correct they question my sanity. I'm not asking them to answer because they quite simply cannot see the issues at stake.

Note
Lest someone get the impression I'm a trust fund baby who has his daddy pay for everything, the money he's poured into the car is the single great anomaly in an otherwise self-sufficient life. He pays for my meager cell phone bill, uses leftover money from the "car fund" to pay for my St. Edward's tuition (after that is drained I'll apply for student loans) and helped me with the earnest and closing cost monies for my house. Unless it is an emergency, I take care of my own financial needs. I don't live a cushy life and I by no means have anywhere near a desirable amount of surplus money lying around waiting to be spent. I live almost paycheck to paycheck.

UPDATED 6/8/2005 2:49am
An Austin Parking Ticket

Posted by Drizzten at January 28, 2005 11:34 AM