[pp.int.general] Big Brother in NL?

[Brian McNeil]

On Mon, 2009-11-16 at 08:14 -0500, Stephane Bakhos wrote:
> > In my opnion, road pricing serves a purpose. Firstly, taxes on automobiles 
> > are high (higher than in DE, afaik), and in the present system, the tax is 
> > the same whether you drive a lot or not much. (Only the fuel tax is 
> > usage-dependent (of course)). With a road pricing system, one pays for the 
> > usage rather han for the posession of a car. A second reason for road 
> > princing is the ability to differentiate, and thus to prevent people from 
> > using their car during rush our on our congested road network if not really 
> > necessary.
> 
> Privacy issues aside, I'd be really surprised if taxes are lowered to the 
> same extent as the added road pricing. To me it just looks like a simple 
> money grab. If you are stuck in road traffic, you pay more tax through the 
> increased fuel consumption.

There are firm Europe-wide plans to implement a system that would enable
this whether you have a GPS transponder in the car or not.

As several people have already mentioned, some countries currently have
the 'upgraded' speed cameras which also read their citizens'
numberplates. This will be upgraded to support all varieties of plates.

Whether or not the system (Project INDECT) will be extended for purposes
of taxation is another matter; they're so hell-bent on a European
Surveillance SuperState that, you'll like this, the head of INDECT's
Ethics Board is Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris of the Police
Service of Northern Ireland.

Judge for yourself what's being developed in the attached pictures from
Poland. I have higher resolution versions if anyone is interested. These
are from late 2008; I have reason to believe they show Polish University
researchers installing custom surveillance hardware in "normal" looking
speed cameras to test part of the system.

[Hoping the mailing list doesn't strip small image attachments.]


-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
Content of this message in no way represents the opinions or official
position of the Wikimedia Foundation or any of its projects.
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