The
Rational Argumentator
Stop Them Before They Start
In today’s political climate, there are few things upon
which everyone can agree. However, the fact that
How baffling it is then, when, in these economic times, that there are laws that prevent the exchange of money and goods.
My husband and his friend Sam went for a leisurely motorcycle ride one weekend. During the ride, Sam wanted to stop at a few motorcycle dealers because he wanted to purchase a children’s motorcycle for his son’s upcoming birthday. At the first dealer they did not see any children’s motorcycles on display, confident that in the recession they were not sold out, they asked for children’s motorcycles.
The salesman told them that they had them, but they were locked up and could not be sold. This hardly seemed likely. The conversation ensued. It seems that the motorcycle’s paint has lead and therefore cannot be sold—even though an adult was doing the buying.
The explanation seemed so outlandish that the men went on to another dealer. There they were told the same thing.
Sam was ready to plunk down $2500 for a brand new children’s motorcycle, stimulating the local economy. The dealers had the inventory, but were prevented from selling it.
Instead of buying local, Sam was forced to search the Internet and eventually found a suitable used children’s motorcycle in a surrounding state. He bought it. Soon his son will be delighted with his birthday present. He will enjoy the father/son bonding that comes from the two of them riding over hill and dale. Sammy will have a great time!
I know he will, because like Sammy, I, too, had a motorcycle
in my childhood. Though I am a girl and I was older than Sammy when I got my
first motorcycle, my dad and I went to the dealer and picked out my red
mini-enduro. We rode through the foothills of
Chuck and Sam were sure the locked-up children’s motorcycles
were the result of one of New Mexico’s senseless regulations. I asked my friends
from the Off Highway Vehicle Association about it.
Clearly an unintended consequence, right? A child old enough to ride a motorcycle with training wheels is old enough to know not to eat the paint on the gas tank or to not suck on the battery terminals. This should be an easy fix; the regulations just need amending.
Despite this obvious oversight, numerous efforts by the Motorcycle Industry Council to correct this error have failed. In an industry hit hard by the downturn, more than $100 million worth of inventory sits in warehouses while the price of used children’s motorcycles goes up and up because buyers want the product, but laws prevent the dealers from selling them.
Could this be about more than lead paint? Could it be about preventing the next generation of petroleum-burning off-road recreationalists?
If children get motorcycles when they are young, they usually become life-long cyclists—graduating to bigger and bigger vehicles as they grow. I got my 60cc at 12, a 100cc at 15 – later a 250, and today I own a 360. My husband has a similar history, ending with 88 cubic inches today. Real life prevents us from riding as much as we’d like, but we enjoy the freedom of the sun on our shoulders and the wind in our hair as we zip across the dirt roads near our home.
If children cannot get a motorcycle or ATV until after they are twelve, fear has likely set in. They’ll probably never ride. This makes the “roadless” advocates happy. The thought of burning gas just for the heck of it has to frost them.
Once again, the environmental zealots have found another way to control mankind and take away our freedoms! Perhaps it is not about lead paint.
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Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here.Read Mr. Stolyarov's new comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, here.