OT: Open source voting machines and other gizmos

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Jeff Kinz wrote:
> I love how government can get away with logic that goes like this:
>
> "These new devices reduce the cost of collecting toll payments"
> "But now we have to charge you additional fees to use them"

A small group of guys somewhere in Florida started up a software company to
process payments.  A couple of years later, they were collecting about 16
cents for every transaction that went through their system.

It was called the Honor System of ATMs, deployed in Florida circa 1984.  Boy
do I wish I'd have thought of the logic that Jeff summarized above so well! 
The banks embraced this logic long before the government did.

And yet millions of silly Americans will go to an ATM 5 or more times a week,
pulling out $20 to $40 at a time, paying fees that in the early days were
about 25 cents (paid by the banks) and are now up to about 2 dollars (paid by
bank depositors who went along with the whole con job).

-rich