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by galdosdi
1304 days ago
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Close but no cigar... It replaces one inequality (bias against those the officials at the top don't like, in favor of those they do) with another one (Bias against those the officials at the bottom don't like, in favor of those they do) In practice it creates more freedom, because users have no choice in their top authorities (I'd have to move to another state or country if I don't like the laws) but often have a lot of choice in bottom level authorities (if the guy at the DMV is mean I can go to a different location) I'm not saying it's strictly good, but it's much more complex. IF you are someone who truly believes the top level policy is good and perfect and has no problems, then yes, any kind of bottom level control. But if your are someone who is harmed by the top level policies, you now have an escape hatch by which a public servant can help you overcome this. For example once in NY I tried to register a car I had bought out of state and one DMV worker told me I could not because the previous owner was named Johnathan Smith but had signed his name as John Smith. Ridiculous, but it's possible they were following the letter of the law and an automated system would have said the same. I simply went to a different DMV where a different worker took a more favorable interpretation. If it had been a piece of software making this comparison I would have been screwed. |
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I owned a vehicle for 15 years and it broke down on me, as a result I dropped insurance on it as I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it or not.
fast forward 3 months and it turned out to be a relatively cheap repair so I went to get it tagged (it had expired while uninsured) and the woman at the DMV absolutely hammered me on the paperwork I had to show her to the point that even the agent at the insurance company was confused about what she wanted.
I go to another location and lo-and-behold it's no longer a problem. Maybe she was in a bad mood, maybe she didn't like the way I looked. I have no idea, but the point you're making is absolutely relevant in day to day life.
And if I can pontificate slightly further, inequities exist in life, there is no way to completely remove them. Giving autonomy to low level people and squashing the ones that abuse that autonomy is absolutely better for people overall, even if it isn't perfect.