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Do You Know Where You Live?
An anonymous submitter writes "Thanks to GPS, it seems quite a few people are discovering they don't live where they thought. Prior to GPS, state, county and city borders were part law, part measurement, and part guesswork. Now, they're able to go back and discover where actual borders should be, and it's making many people unhappy. Some familes in Rhode Island are finding out they may actually live in Connecticut. Each state, county and city wants as much land as possible, because it means more tax income. The people caught in the middle simply want to know where they'll send their kids for school."
Maybe we could use GPS to get back the portions of Alaska that stretch down our west coast!
Idiocy at it's best.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
We're currently having issues at work with that silly GPS, as it's nowhere nearly as reliable as we'd need when it comes to field use. You know where you stand, but you can't quite know where most of the limits are supposed to be, thanks to the napoleonic era cadastre that is still used. So, while getting the data to map again, the surface we get for a given plot can be wildly different from what was previous declared, with no way to know which is right. So what good are precision tools when you still have to rely on your eyes and ancient maps?
For that matter, say Farmer Johnson thinks the well is on his land. Can't he grant access for the survey team to walk the perimeter of his land, and then see where the well ends up?
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
And if not, WHY not?
how would this be any different than cities/counties/whatever annexing land like they do now?
Borders change all the time - maybe not usually in a state border situation - but certainly often at lower government levels.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
If it were my choice, I'd change all current records to the real coordinates of the previously accepted borders, therefore records are now accurate, nobody has to be bothered by changing schools, tax arrangements, addresses etc... If anyone complained I'd say "Well, if it really matters that much, you should have done your own damn survey, just in case!". Seems pretty sensible to me, but...
No rational person wants that.
Ali
Ph33r m3!!!
If this was not the U.S., but just a hodgepodge of 50 or so countries?
And they go to war, not for land, not for mineral or 'natural' resources, but for fucking (pun intended) -people- and the taxes they represent.
Why can I see this happening?
Somewhere, on some planet or continent even more boneheaded than ours, this has, or will happen...
I am a science fantasy fan
Almost every time political boundaries need to be altered (for representatives), these people don't move the border around a few houses, they rewrite the entire map to best suit their own agenda. Legislative Redistricting causes this problem (known as Gerrymandering) in elections again and again and again ALL OVER THE USA.
You are right about no rational people wanting it. There are many rational people who have offered ways to restructure boundaries that offer the biggest human benefit and lowest government cost. These ideal solutions segment the groups by physical boundaries and population density. But government is not a rational entity.
There are countless smart was to divide it up. Clusters of people should rationally be served by the same set of government. People between clusters should be separated by distance to the clusters and other boundaries (hills, rivers, roads). In dense population areas, map the location of a current road, or a side of the road, as the boundary -- not the line between where two rivers meet and where another river enters a lake bed.
And of course after two counties or states go to court fighting it out -- costing millions of taxpayer dollers -- They will put out big press releases saying either "We saved tax money by moving these buildings outside of our county!" or "We increased tax revenue without increasing taxes!", overlooking the fact that they wasted millions in the process.
frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Using rivers isn't always clear either.
Take the case of New Hampshire vs. Maine
Which, after centuries of dispute was only recently resolved by the Supreme Court.
O=='=++
Why is it more depressing for a "suit" to decide a border than it is for people to die over it? Go pencil pushers on this one...
-jon
Not easily defendable for one thing, always nice to have logical reasons for placing a boarder someplace. That is actually the line that kind of ticked me off, boarders should be placed in logical locations, not just willy nilly.
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GPS Coordinates, I'd imagine that they don't account for continental drift, eh?
One inch a year adds up over a century or two. So by default you can't use precise GPS coordinates, unless you account year by year for all the plate movement.
In a very rural setting like this, the survey crew isn't going to get a lot of support from the local sherrif, and the state law enforcement has better things to do.
The state law enforcement has better things to do than arrest someone for open threatening or assault with a firearm? Damn, but i'm staying the fuck OUT of that state.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)