People ought to have enough sense to keep track of their own due dates

Excuse me for not being the least bit sympathetic to people who are now getting hit with late fees and other financial penalties because they miss deadlines in place for the various functions of the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

 

WHITE: Not a bandit taking our $$$

These fees are occurring in part because of people who don’t file their applications for renewal of various functions on time because the secretary of state is not sending out as many warning notices via the mail to indicate that application deadlines are approaching.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS reported how the amount of money being collected by the state in such fees is significant – nearly double.

Which has some people whining and crying about this being a scam on the part of the state – a way of collecting even more money from the taxpaying public than it is entitled to.

Which is a line of logic that I find to be a tad nonsensical!

I honestly believe that people ought to be capable of keeping track of things such as when their license plate registration expires or when the driver’s licenses need to be renewed.

UNLESS THEY HAVE the interaction quotient of a six year old who perpetually needs to have “mommy” nag them in order to get them to do anything on time, people ought to have some sense of when something is on the verge of expiring.

They ought to know when they need to renew. They ought to be able to have a clue, then figure out how to get to the secretary of state’s office on their own to do their business with the state.

The people who are crying and whining these days about the penalties they are paying are most likely just cheap people looking for excuses to get out of paying what they owe.

I can’t express the least bit of sympathy for them, and honestly believe that anybody who can’t comprehend this as fact is somehow clueless in their own right.

IT MAKES ME wish that stupidity could be a public offense for which people could be fined, or at least subjected to some form of public humiliation.

Seriously, how hard is it to remember that one’s license plates need to be renewed each year. One has to go to a secretary of state’s facility and buy that little sticker that goes in the corner of one’s license plate.

The interesting part comes when one has had a particular plate for years and has accumulated layer upon layer of registration stickers.

There’s also the renewal of a driver’s license itself – which occurs every four years on one’s birthday. That ought to be the ultimate in remembrance.

EXCEPT THAT SOME people are determined to be mentally lazy. You’d think they’d be too embarrassed to complain about the fines they pay because it makes them appear even more clueless/vacuous/lazy/inept or whatever other label one can think of than they truly are.

Which makes me think Illinois WOULD be better off without the roughly $5.2 million in revenues it collected more this year compared to than it did last year from people who couldn’t remember exactly when their license plates expired – AND also didn’t have enough sense to just look at their plate to see exactly when the sticker is set to expire.

It is printed right on the sticker, and my own sense is that people ought to pay attention to their own vehicle because the police certainly will do so.

And if they have to remind you by pulling you over for a traffic violation, you truly are worthy of any fines or harassment you get for such a petty offense.

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