City proposes new registration scheme
How does theft solve theft?
Because of theft at construction sites, the city of Albuquerque wants all construction equipment in the city to be registered with them.
I have questions. Is it mandatory? Will it eventually become mandatory? What are the penalties if a construction company doesn't wish to participate? How long until this program is embedded like "driver's licenses" or other intrusive programs? It is claimed that the program costs the city "very little" (of course, it actually costs "the city" nothing since cities have nothing of their own), but what happens when the front money from the Construction Industry Crime Alliance runs out? And just who gets to define "costs very little"?
Where does the money come from that pays for the time the LEOs spend administering the program? It is stolen through "taxation" from us all. The theft of even one cent or one minute of a person's time is inexcusable. This is a case of theft being used to "combat" theft. Two wrongs do not make a right. There is always an option that does not involve coercion or theft. Always. You just have to sit back and think how it would be solved if there were no government and no "legalized" theft at all.
If this is a real problem, why can't this be done by the market? It can. Why can't the Construction Industry Crime Alliance accomplish the same thing without getting government involved? If it is that important to their members. Or, if they have no stomach for actually solving problems there are other ways to approach it. Is construction equipment insured? Then let the insurance companies catalog and track the equipment for their customers. That way the cost would be added to the cost of doing business and would be paid by the customers of the construction companies rather than being charged to everyone including people who never use their services. If the equipment is not insured, then the money that would otherwise be spent on insurance could be saved toward the cost of replacing stolen equipment, plans and devices to prevent theft, and security for the construction sites. And not one cent or one second stolen from the innocent people who did not commit the thefts. It really is that simple.
