Reader: Government deserves some thanks

Overdrive Staff | September 04, 2012

The following letter came in from Jim Mesthene of Waltham, Mass., in response to Overdrive Editorial Director Max Heine’s Pulse column in this month’s issue, which ran alongside a round-up of voices on the inclusion of Jason’s Law trucking parking legislation in the highway bill — expected to deliver no small amount of tax dollars to truck parking initiatives on the National Highway System.

I read your screed against government in the September issue of Overdrive magazine, equating money with achievement and claiming all credit for private commercial activity. I found it amusing that it was published on the opposite page from a celebratory article about how the federal government was going to subsidize truckers (and trucking companies) with millions of dollars of free parking spaces. Will it be OK for regular citizens to use these spaces, or is this an exclusive benefit for the business you claim needs no help? Remember that most business travelers don’t get the government to pay for their lodging.

Don’t get me wrong — I want the truckers to get the help. I just wish they and you didn’t badmouth the government that educated them, gave them roads to drive on and is now going to give land and money for parking at great cost to the public.

All I’m saying is that the public needs trucks and truckers, and truckers need what the public pays for. The public will is expressed through government, not talk radio. –Jim Mesthene, Waltham, Mass.

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economics, federal money, government, Jim Mesthene, Massachusetts, private sector, role of government in economy, small business, tax dollars, truck parking, Waltham

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Migaz

Mr Mesthene

This sounds very much like, ‘You didn’t build that’!

The government does not go around posting signs everywhere that say, ‘NO REGULAR CITIZEN PARKING’. When a regular citizen gets tired of driving & needs to take a break, he can pretty much park just about anywhere & take a break. Truckers don’t have that right. If you would be a little bit more observant, the signs say, ‘NO TRUCKS’!

You may want to walk around to an other side of the prism & get a different perspective on this. The government has pretty much singled out truckers & discriminated against them, making rules, requirements, restrictions & judgments specifically aimed at truckers, while anybody else, including ‘regular citizens’, are exempt.

And whenever the trucker & the ‘regular citizen’ collide, in the majority of cases, the ‘regular citizen’ is at fault, but guess who gets blamed & heavily penalized?

If you really want to know who pays for those roads, when a ‘regular citizen’ goes & pays to register what he drives, a trucker also goes & pays to register what he drives. The small difference is that the trucker pays about 17 times what the ‘regular citizen’ pays. And that doesn’t include the road tax & additional permits & fees that apply to each individual trucker.
Karl

Wow!!! Mr Mesthene apparently has no clue what hes talking about. Guess he has never heard of the 2290. Or IFTA that discourages competition with states with higher fuel. Or what about WDT or Surcharges or apportionment. Or what about the sheer volume of road tax each truck pays. What about being more regulated than almost every industry in the country. How about when a car has a shattered windshield its still safe to drive but when I have a chip in passenger side its a violation.
Most trucks have sleepers on them so how does the government provide lodging? The law ,written by government, requires us to shut down after a certain amount of time (unlike cars, campers, motorcyclists,etc) Where would you like us to do that?
If the government wants you to pay your taxes in person at a location in Vegas would you go. or would you say “If you want me to pay and obey I need someplace closer aka conveinent to pay” If they built an IRS office closer would the government be subsidizing you? I ramble as there are so many points to make and Im not much of a writer but people like you that think the government is answer to everything driver me crazy.

Mr. Mesthene you need to pull you head out of your butt and jump in a truck and see what its like. You will sing a different tune, I guarantee.
PS: I wasnt trained by the state. Im self made. Started with one truck and grew from there. I BUILT it. Dont like it then boycott anything that moved on a truck.
Mary

He’s from Mass., what more do you expect. I’d love this dude to actually drive a truck. A parking space IS NOT free lodging, are you kidding me?? What an ignorant letter.
KCMike

Government doesn’t GIVE anything which isn’t first TAKEN from someone else, Jim!

(i.e. the MASSIVE amount of taxes paid by each truck.)
GJK

Is this guy serious? He must be writing this from the Democratic National Convention. The Government didn’t build squat and it is not their money that they are spending it is the taxpayers money. And if the government would get their nose out of everyone’s business we wouldn’t have to pay as many taxes. We have to contend with Federal DOT, State DOT’s, State police, county police, Local Police, Weighmaster’s, Border Patrol the IRS and God knows how many others and they all got there books of stupid rules and all have their hands in our pockets, while you sit home fat, dumb and happy probably living on welfare. Next time your check comes in the mail, thank a trucker.
http://www.facebook.com/people/George-Colby/100001300492010 George Colby

Governmnet is the problem not the solution
Marty Marsh

Thanks Karl,you saved me a lot of typing.He is just another clown.