Why are people desperate enough to raid their own communities of basic infrastructure? Guaranteeing access to basic necessities like food, shelter, and healthcare would go a long long way to aligning society’s collective values and interests toward the preservation of its infrastructure.
There's a scrapyard right by my hometown with a fancy billboard, like the ones for the lottery that have the number displays. It's just for showing copper prices, bright copper, copper #1 and copper #2. There's so much money in it they can afford to advertise now.
It feels like we (and I specifically mean the left) has decided to nearly universally stop enforcing rules on a large basis as an alternative to legislative reform.
We’ve basically decided that actually reforming the bureaucratic machine is much too hard, so instead of reform let’s just not enforce anything.
One of Zohrans ads is such an on the nose example of this. He has an ad where he says he’s gonna help out small business by cutting down the fines that they face. Which on the surface sort of sounds nice, but now we basically just get shitty businesses selling shitty things and facing small slaps on the wrist instead of actually going through and removing the onerous laws and enforcing the important ones.
Same thing going on with immigration. The system is so fucked up, that instead of reform we simply won’t enforce immigration laws.
You see the same thing with housing that abundance basically called out. The system has gotten really good at writing more and more complicated laws at the cost of things basically falling apart in the real world
These copper thefts affect millions of people. It regularly happens to the MTA and shuts down the subway. A functional society would make an example of people committing these thefts so that the rest of us can continue to contribute and live their lives without being screwed by antisocial people
I think if taxpayers were allowed to freely vote for what percentage of their tax dollars went toward, for funsies, I think bait and sting operations would be toward the top of the list. Bait copper, bait bikes, bait suitcases in back seats of cars. Heck, they could probably make a YouTube channel out of it and pay for itself.
We need to have death penalty--or at least life in prison without parole--for people who buy stolen copper. It's appropriate: copper theft puts lives in danger.
Victim here. I lost $740 worth of #4 submersible pump cable to copper thieves
(wholesale cost) at night. Local scrap yard was briefed, they were pumped, anticipating a bust.
Thieves showed up same day with cable all pulled off spools, scrap yard guys called police and kept stalling thieves, saying it was more money than they had in their till, were waiting for timed safe to roll out more cash upstairs.
Thieves were getting nervous and about to leave without money, SWAT team showed up a bit late to the party, scrap guys said at one point SWAT guy stuck a rifle barrel down thieves throat to get a confession. Police contacted me later and said: " come pick up your wire". Cable had been dragged across asphalt, insulation scratched. Later I drove down to prosecutor's office to try to file for restitution $$$, they avoided me, only secretary took my info., they would never return my calls even.
Copper theft is a felony in Texas, even burning copper wire to get rid of insulation is a criminal act.
11 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 27.9 ms ] threadWe’ve basically decided that actually reforming the bureaucratic machine is much too hard, so instead of reform let’s just not enforce anything.
One of Zohrans ads is such an on the nose example of this. He has an ad where he says he’s gonna help out small business by cutting down the fines that they face. Which on the surface sort of sounds nice, but now we basically just get shitty businesses selling shitty things and facing small slaps on the wrist instead of actually going through and removing the onerous laws and enforcing the important ones.
Same thing going on with immigration. The system is so fucked up, that instead of reform we simply won’t enforce immigration laws.
You see the same thing with housing that abundance basically called out. The system has gotten really good at writing more and more complicated laws at the cost of things basically falling apart in the real world
These copper thefts affect millions of people. It regularly happens to the MTA and shuts down the subway. A functional society would make an example of people committing these thefts so that the rest of us can continue to contribute and live their lives without being screwed by antisocial people
This would solve problem in days.
Thieves were getting nervous and about to leave without money, SWAT team showed up a bit late to the party, scrap guys said at one point SWAT guy stuck a rifle barrel down thieves throat to get a confession. Police contacted me later and said: " come pick up your wire". Cable had been dragged across asphalt, insulation scratched. Later I drove down to prosecutor's office to try to file for restitution $$$, they avoided me, only secretary took my info., they would never return my calls even.
Copper theft is a felony in Texas, even burning copper wire to get rid of insulation is a criminal act.
Sounds too good to be true. That's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Metal thieves in America's cities
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40920980