What Car Thieves Think of the Club (2010)
freakonomics.com
freakonomics.com
IMO such a loose definition is meaningless, and the word should be reserved for cases where you are actually doing harm. In the case of improved car security it's the car thieves who are doing harm.
Personal hygiene products, high heels, and makeup are examples of the tragedy of the commons.
A tragedy of the commons is when someone utilizes the commons in such a way that is simultaneously benefiting them and harming the commons. An example might be one individual drilling for oil in a public park. While that individual profits from the oil, he is also destroying the park for others.
How does wearing high heels damage the commons?
You jest but this is mainstream thinking and has been for a good few years now. Tony Bliar and his policy of 50% of school leavers being given degrees. The proportion of top grades being dished out at every level increasing, a First is the normal grade at many ex-polys now, there were so many A’s at GCSE the government had to introduce a new super grade A*...
you are right that most areas of life are competitive, but the examples you provided are probably not zero sum. when you get educated, you don't just increase your leverage to take more out of a fixed size econonic pie; you marginally increase the size of the pie with your skills. increasing your physical fitness means less burden on health services. everyone you interact with has a more pleasant day when you aren't filthy.
Article's anecdote aside, there'd be no reason to believe it wouldn't also reduce global theft rate. Theft requires opportunity, and if the club means that global opportunity goes down, the global theft rate would follow. e.g. at the very least there might be some occasions where the car with the Club is the only car available to steal at the time.
Nobody is blaming the purchasers if the anti theft device, they’re not doing anything wrong. We’re just analysing the consequences.
You not liking, or having some kind of moral allergic reaction to the implications, doesn’t change the facts. However it would be helpful in having a rational conversation about this to at least be able to talk about it without politically charged linguistic revisionism.
The mystery device is a manual transmission.
When I parked it around town, people were literally laughing at it. (And me for driving it, I guess.)
According to the dealer, the car company were pitching at a young market.
They might have been better off marketing it as an anti-theft system.
As a die-hard manual enthusiast I persist in buying manuals for myself, but for the last 5-10 years I have had to grudgingly admit that I have no claim to performance or efficiency, I only do it because I like to drive manuals. If I cared about speed or MPG, I'd get an automatic.
https://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/18/greenlings-why-do-automa...
Fuel economy tests in many different countries have confirmed that automatic transmission can indeed be more efficient than the manual transmission in the same car.
Want a source? Start perusing the manufacturer specs and fuelly pages for cars that still have both options.
(You could at least give the original author credit, rather than shamelessly stealing the joke.)
It's even worse for the Honda CRX.
I used to own an Acura Integra. The rear spoiler was ripped off several times (carefully, so it could be re-attached to another car), and the car itself was stolen twice - the first time it was recovered in one piece, the second time it was a bare chassis without even wheels.
The Integra motor had a 10,000 rpm redline and had a cult following among Honda enthusiasts. It could be retrofitted into any Civic.
Any D-series motor bolts directly into any car with D-series engine mounts, and same is true for B/K series cars. Putting a B-series engine into a D-series chassis is pretty simple too, just requires some drilling and new engine mounts. Not a direct bolt-in but not difficult either.
I recall my insurance company ended up paying more than the car was worth (before the theft) in impound fees, before even they could get it out.
Other enthusiast models don't suffer from similar theft rates.
That being said the last del Sol I had stolen had a B20A(x) block and B16A3 head, the LS-VTEC hybrid. I'm well aware of their reputation for being stolen and hot parts, so much so that my last one had an alarm and a removable steering wheel and I parked it under a street lamp in front of my house. That did not work.
EDIT: The 1997 Civic I had stolen here was a junked, twice totaled, complete piece of crap with a D16 (probably actually a D15) motor, SOHC no VTEC. They still stole it. It was recovered with projector headlamps and a straight pipe installed, with the cold air intake piping removed.
Yeah, I don't understand either. But thanks for the free upgrade.
Edit: I can't help but to comment that I had one better. I had a 1990's hatchback. The rear hatch didn't lock, but you had to do the right motions to open it lest it act locked. It was an automatic, but didn't have much "oomph". Finally, the handles to roll up the windows didn't stay on the doors. I stored them on the dashboard. (they would still roll up/down the windows, but would not stay).
I've never heard of such a thing, and have been driving for many years. even a quick google search didn't find anything other than questions as to why there aren't special licenses.
can you point to an example state that has these requirements?
in my part of the country (pacific nw), there are often social media posts asking for someone to loan them a manual transmission vehicle so they can get "used to a clutch".
My definition of here is Norway - if you cannot drive a manual transmission, your license is has a restriction. You can get ticketed for driving a manual transmission instead of an automatic.
I was lucky and learned to drive one in the US well before I moved here, but I imagine one would need to either go to a driving instruction school, get a special permit to learn to drive one with a qualified driver, or minimally take a driving test after having illegally learned to drive one before removing it.
It's expensive being poor...
There are lists of the most stolen cars by year. Late 90s Hondas dominate.
I'd love to see a list controlled for popularity, or some sort of estimate of how many of each model is likely parked out on curbs at any given time.
Maybe the SUVs aren't being taken as often because they are in garages in the suburbs.
In the story he contained an observation on how in blockhouses people on the first floor secure their balconies with bars to protect their flats against burglars.
These bars, however, make for a perfect ladder right onto the balcony on the second floor :) So then people on the second floor are forced towards doing the same thing, and so on all the way up.
LOCKSMITHS
TOW TRUCK OPERATORS
AUTOMOBILE REPOSSESSION PROFESSIONALS
FIREMEN & PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES ....
Yeah, right :).We lived on a street frequented by under 25s at night and used clubs on our cars. They were never stolen, but the neighbors who had easier to steal vehicles such as Dodge Caravan were taken quite often.
You're not going to stop a pro.
The only thing stopping a pro is to have an uninteresting car. My idea is to have a car good enough not to be easily stolen for a joyride but uninteresting enough for a pro.
It hardly shocks people when it's about cybersecurity.
I'd also nitpick about car thieves wishing to harm the car companies. They're actually harming car owners, or possibly insurance companies. They do not "wish" to harm car companies. It's arguably not even an unintended side effect of what they do.
Car companies might actually benefit from you having to buy another car once yours is suddenly gone. Sure, the stolen one will be sold to someone else, but on average the victim of the theft is wealthier than the person who'll buy their stolen car - which essentially means more rather than less extra money is likely to get pumped into the pockets of car companies at the end. (You presumably had a good car, you can afford buying a new one - the person who bought yours would have been unlikely to buy a new one anyway).
Even before I read about the hacksaw (long ago) I knew clubs by themselves were bad cause they were visible. They reveal intel to the attacker. Intel the attacker can take and, in safe environment, at their leisure, devise way to defeat it. If the attacker doesn't know what countermeasures there are, (or are common) they can't defeat them. GPS trackers can be hidden, but car thieves know about them so they can counter (say by getting car into faraday cage ASAP, or using radio wave detector to track it down and disable. So, you have to be more creative, unusual.
Where the club could be useful is a honey pot. Put it on the worthless (to you) car you want stolen so the more valuable (to you) car is skipped over.
Maybe bait car has secondary devices for tracking that thieves will be less likely to look for since it had the club and and multiple defenses are unexpected.
The long part of the bar is meant to go down and to the left between the door and the floor, to make the steering wheel harder to turn.
Everybody attaches it with the long part sticking up in the air.
I suppose one thing that benefits security the most is a functional society - if people can get better and more stable employment working as a locksmith than a burglar most will apply their skills for good - there will still be some types attracted to the thrill of larceny or unable to hold a 9-5 job for whatever reason.
Then just slide the Club off
Are the instructions for the Club bad, or what? I'm usually the first person to say "you don't need to propose an alternative for your criticism to be valid". I think in this case, however, where the validity of the criticism is predicated in the existence of alternatives, you really need to give one.
Maybe a sticker with ↑up↑ and ↓down↓ printed on it, in such a way that the text is upside down if the club is locked incorrectly.
In the Club's case, it might have helped to include a simple "This end up" label in the appropriate spot.
Not that I'm opposed to your approach either...
That's the whole point of why it should be placed that way, but if it inconveniences the user then it will be installed wrong and be less effective.
Worst case you forget to turn it off and fall asleep a couple hours.