Careful, there, Jeff. A national driver's license might be just around the corner!

@ TruthInAction -

I wish you hadn't said that, soon we're going to have to get licence's for bicycling, jogging, scateboarding, horseback riding or surfing the net.

And thank heaven Jacoby isn't verbose...

P.S. Obamacare amounts to nothing more than a tax or license to breath. If they get away with that, we are screwed.

It's a revenue generator, pure and simple. Nothing more. Since when has any government agency of any stripe given up a revenue generator?

In the UK, a driver's license is much more difficult to obtain than in the US, but once you get it, it is good until your 70th birthday, with no renewals required along the way.

"Diese Papiere sind nicht in Ordnung", said the jackbooted official as he examined my papers with a suspicious eye.

"You shouldn't need a license to drive a car any more than you need one to use a computer or ride a horse."

True. What people need is a license to eat a donut, smoke a cigarette, apply makeup and text or talk on their cell phones while simultaneuously driving a motor vehicle.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see the reason for this article. I fail to see why it was even posted.

I agree that the process for getting them is difficult, but that doesn't mean states should not issue them. What you are saying is that anyone should be allowed to drive. That would cause more problems than good.

This is nothing but you whining about a process that needs to be corrected.

Jacob's premise is sound There really aren't any good reasons that drivers licenses should be required. You didn't need a license to ride a horse - driving is only marginally different.

There is, furthermore, no real evidence that any "problems" would occur without a license. Don't recollect there were problems riding horses without licenses. Licenses don't keep unqualified people from driving - or doing stupid things while driving. And we have a HUGE population of unlikeness drivers out there as we speak, yet the accident rate hasn't appreciably changed.

Drivers licenses is only one more of a myriad of things the government wraps in mystic of "safety" to simply gather revenue. Traffic laws are mostly the same. As is gun registration. These are all things the government really has no business doing.

Craig: Reread the article "It's one thing to require would-be motorists to enroll in driver's-education classes and to be tested on their knowledge of safe driving practices and highway signs and signals. And of course anyone getting behind the wheel of a car should be liable for damage caused through negligence or irresponsibility. But to condition driving itself on governmental permission? To extort a chunk of money every few years to keep that permission current? By what right?" It's ok to require a test and a license, but NOT ok to force people to pay the government every few years to keep their licenses. There is ZERO rational reason to allow this kind of extortion to continue. We all agree that kids need training, but once they get their license, the government should leave people ALONE!

Oh c'mon Jacoby; you're just trying to be provocative.

1) That license gives you a state-granted right which can be revoked if you, say, DUI or drive like a maniac; driving, then, without one, and someone is harmed, becomes a felony for which jail time can result. Thus driver-licensing is a fundamental function of government: protecting us citizens from doing one another harm.

2) That license is also your "Photo ID", the official document that says who you are and where you live - which needs to be renewed if you move.

Does it need to be renewed regularly? Well, the photo needs updating (unless a niqab covers the face).

How often is the question - different states; different dates.

Years ago, when in the Navy, I got an Alabama license which was good (in Alabama) forever. Promote that.

Cheers

Not a bad idea. The FAA issues you a pilot's license which doesn't need renewal, and you update it with additional ratings now and then. If not, you're still good until or unless the FAA suspends or revokes it. It's a process that works fine; those who crew up are winnowed out, those who abide by the rules go their merry ways. All the state needs to do is figure out a way to get current pictures from the actual person. Or, the could just farm out the whole thing to QuikTrips and 7-11s!

Required renewal of your license is the same a most traffic laws these days - nothing more than a revenue generator for failed politicians who have spent the states and fed in to a hole and know no other way to get out that to screw the taxpayers at ever opportunity.

SO, you rather have a National ID card. Ops, I forgot nobody wants that. Thank God I don't have to go to a Fed Gov installation to get a License. Oh, and by the way License fees pay for roads and infrastructure, I vote for the State to handle it!

Some years ago I lived in a state that coded the license plates with an indicator that told the county where the vehicle was registered, thus its "home." Then, when that state needed a few extra bucks, it instituted a new rule requiring motorists to purchase an additional decal strip with the name of the county that had to be stuck onto the plate. The sticker cost about two cents and sold for a dollar at the license offices, and you had to buy the official one. I wondered if the police were having difficulty reading the two-digit code and needed this additional help to determine if the car "belonged" around there. They could have used a little card with all the codes. I had one that I got from my insurance agent, but that wouldn't have given the state ninety-eight cents for each vehicle licensed there.

Paulrod; An FAA license does not expire but can be revoked - for cause. To use it, to fly, you still need a current medical which requires periodic renewal - unless you just want to fly a "Light Sport Aircraft" in which case a current Drivers License may be used in lieu of an FAA medical. So, if the DMV thinks you can see lightning and hear thunder, that's good enough for the FAA. Another "other" use for a driver's license.

I can get on this bandwagon regarding licensing. I jumped through the hoops and paid the $60 to get a CCW permit for my state, even though the 2nd Amendment says we have the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. What does the state do with that $60? The state probably hands it to someone on welfare who votes Democrap. TexasGuy said it- it's a revenue generator...

As long as you don't want to drive said horse and buggy in Boston - then you DO need a license, registration of your buggy, and an inspection sticker. Once the gubmint gets in the business of stealing your money, there is no end to the gimmicks they'll come up with to implement it.

Todd - also a way to get a list of gun owners. Seems a guy by the name of Adolph used it to confisgate guns. It seems lawyers and judges as well the crooks and/or mental midgets in Washington need to go back to elementary to school to understand what, "shall not be infringed" means. Here in Wyoming as well as Alaska, Vermont and Arizona can carry without the permission of the aristocracy.

I don't like auto renewals of subscriptions. More often than not it seems the periodical involved has crept the renewal due date up by a few months; i.e. I have a 13 issue (12 month) subscription, but after about 8 months I start getting new billing for the renewal, & nothing on the renewal specifies the renewal date. So I begin to wonder if the Mag is creeping the date forward, so in the long run if I renew at 1st opprtunity, I get 10 issues not 13, 3 years later I have paid for 4 years of 13 issues (52) but I received & been credited for 40? Time/Life, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Ebony, any Mag or Newspaper, could get rich selling 52 issues and delivering 40.

Do you really want an unqualified or habitually unsafe driver to operate a 40,000-pound bus or a dump truck with the tacit approval of the state? In this era of liability lawsuits, state governments would have one heckuva time trying to justify why they allowed physically, mentally, or experientially unqualified persons to operate a motor vehicle on public roadways. What you gained in unpaid license fees you'd lose in state liability losses from civil suits. Additionally, no one is forced to drive on public roadways and driver's licenses are required in most states only when operating a motor vehicle on public roads. If you pave or construct your own road, or drive only on private property, no license is required. Drive on public roadways and your duly elected state government wants you to meet certain license, vehicle registration, and insurance coverage requirements. It may be expensive, but it beats the crap out of having drivers being forced to seek out for financial compensation or vengeance other drivers whose wrongful or erroneous acts cause physical harm to other drivers, or cause property damage.

Drivers license, business license, medical license, hunting license, fishing license, car registrations, carry permit, Federal Firearm License, etc. Every one of these are unnecessary. They do nothing to ensure that the holder of the license is any more responsible or able than someone who knows how to execute those actions who does not have a license. The are simply revenue generators and nothing else. With the exception of the medical license all you have to do is meet some very loose requirements, pay a fee and ba da bing, you recieve your license. It's rediculous and most of the money generated is wasted or unevenly distributed for what it is said that it will be distributed for. Most of the agencies that they fund are unnecessary and do nothing to stop actual abusers of such license's in check. However, if we can't get rid of the license's then the auto renewal does sound better than the current renewal method.

Drivers license, business license, medical license, hunting license, fishing license, car registrations, carry permit, Federal Firearm License, etc. Every one of these are unnecessary. They do nothing to ensure that the holder of the license is any more responsible or able than someone who knows how to execute those actions who does not have a license. The are simply revenue generators and nothing else. With the exception of the medical license all you have to do is meet some very loose requirements, pay a fee and ba da bing, you recieve your license. It's rediculous and most of the money generated is wasted or unevenly distributed for what it is said that it will be distributed for. Most of the agencies that they fund are unnecessary and do nothing to stop actual abusers of such license's in check. However, if we can't get rid of the license's then the auto renewal does sound better than the current renewal method.