re: #305 ipsos

Ah… I see where you’re coming from.

I think of the fee (kind of like the passport fee) as more of an administrative thing… it costs to staff the extra lanes and maintain the infrastructure and issue the cards. Ten bucks a year isn’t much, and whatever idealistic fury I might muster about it pretty much evaporates when I’m speeding past a long line of non-NEXUS-card-holders and on my way home instead of sitting in traffic for an hour. That’s where the idealist in me gets kicked to the curb and stomped by my inner pragmatist.

I don’t travel much so I don’t really have much of a say I suppose.

All this goes back to Ronald Reagan’s idea that government services should pay for themselves (fees or fines).

Prior to hyper-libertarianism inserted into government, taxation paid for any such programme the government wanted to provide or implement.

In the example of breezing by everyone who didn’t have a Nexus card, what happens when a significant number of people decide the same as you: Well, I’ll get one of those cards to speed up clearing customs?

Then you get the same lines, but are also paying $15 for the privilege. I don’t know if that will happen, but so-called “life hacks” tend not to stay secret forever.