{"id":176689,"date":"2020-04-13T18:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T23:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/13\/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life\/"},"modified":"2020-04-13T18:55:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T23:55:00","slug":"always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2020\/04\/13\/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 330px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SJUhlRoBL8M\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>A red light camera company is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20200407\/12234644255\/red-light-camera-company-says-dying-coronavirus.shtml\">facing bankruptcy because of reduced driving, and reduced fines, during the lock-down<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I am amused:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\">Things change. And the stuff that used to work just doesn&#8217;t anymore. We&#8217;ve covered a lot of this over the years, mainly focusing on how the rise of the internet was greeted with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20130525\/03082423211\/aftermath-napster-letting-incumbents-veto-innovation-destroys-innovation.shtml\">rent-seeking and protectionist policies<\/a> meant to extend the upper hand that incumbent industries had enjoyed for years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> We are again being asked to shed a tear for a law enforcement-adjacent industry. Social distancing and sheltering-in-place in response to the coronavirus has led to a downturn in driving. And if there&#8217;s fewer drivers on the road, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/coronavirus-disrupting-red-light-camera-company-revenue-2020-4\">proxy cops are seeing their revenue streams dry up<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> Redflex, an Australian company that operates &#8220;traffic safety programs&#8221; in roughly 100 US and Canadian cities, warned that less traffic and suspended construction amid the pandemic will be a stress on its balance sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> &#8220;Approximately 15% of group revenue is dependent on volume-based contracts,&#8221; the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asx.com.au\/asxpdf\/20200330\/pdf\/44gjhqc1pyh7bl.pdf\">said in a regulatory filing<\/a> Monday<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/wrong-kind-of-red-light-for-traffic-company-11585692899\"> first spotted by The Wall Street Journal<\/a>, hinting at its business line that includes enforcement cameras. &#8220;We anticipate our revenue from these contracts will be impacted broadly in line with the reduction in traffic volumes as well as the duration of the disruption.&#8221; <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\"> Yeah, that&#8217;s a real shame. It&#8217;s too bad a company that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20140209\/10073726157\/speed-cam-contractor-redflex-accused-bribing-government-officials-13-states.shtml\">engaged in bribery<\/a> to grab market share won&#8217;t be able to weather this unexpected downturn in questionably-obtained income. There are several competitors in the crowded &#8220;worst traffic cam ever&#8221; field, but Redflex did <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20140818\/07080128239\/shocking-red-light-camera-company-ceo-chicago-city-official-indicted-corruption-charges.shtml\">everything it could<\/a> to stay ahead of the pack. This behavior resulted in other unexpected downturns, like refunding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20101019\/04371811487\/68-000-speeding-fines-may-need-to-be-refunded-in-australia-due-to-faulty-cameras.shtml\">millions of dollars<\/a> of tickets in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20140823\/11410928301\/revenue-generating-traffic-cameras-forcing-governments-to-refund-millions-dollars.shtml\">multiple locations<\/a> due to the tech&#8217;s inability to do the little things\u2026 like accurately judge vehicle speed.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here&#8217;s hoping that these folks end up in the poor house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A red light camera company is facing bankruptcy because of reduced driving, and reduced fines, during the lock-down. I am amused: Things change. And the stuff that used to work just doesn&#8217;t anymore. We&#8217;ve covered a lot of this over the years, mainly focusing on how the rise of the internet was greeted with rent-seeking &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[365,368,392,364,526,572,486],"class_list":["post-176689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-corruption","tag-economy","tag-evil","tag-law-enforcement-misconduct","tag-pandemic","tag-schadenfreude"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}