If improving your own security produces a negative externality then education also produces a negative externality. You're "harming" other people by becoming more employable than them. Personal hygiene produces a negative externality because you might become more attractive than somebody. Physical fitness produces a negative externality because you might get chased by a bear and not be the slowest. Doing anything that improves your chances in competition counts, and there are very few areas of life with no competition.
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.
It's better to define "externality" as including all impacts on everyone but yourself, and accept that some amount of negative externality is inevitable. That allows you to differentiate cases like (in the article) Lojack, which produces a positive externality, from the Club which theoretically produces a negative externality.
You can already distinguish between positive and zero. If you lump zero in with negative then you're losing information, and you're violating common sense in a way that makes people lose respect for the field in general.
Car thieves are people too. One could argue that increasing a marginalized population’s chances of life-destroying interaction with the criminal justice system is a negative externality, one far outweighed by the inconvenience of private property appropriation. (That may sound crazy, but it is the governing logic in places like SF that choose not to enforce property crime).
you are neglecting the difference between zero and positive sum in your examples. using a club is zero sum, because (as implied by the article) it doesn't reduce the global rate of car theft, so you are merely shifting the burden to other car owners.
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.
> it doesn't reduce the global rate of car theft, so you are merely shifting the burden to other car owners.
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.
yeah this occurred to me too, but i just decided to assume the article was correct to illustrate my greater point. the punchline of the article is to suggest that the club actually increases the local risk of theft anyway.
There's a clause in German civil code that the use of a right is unlawful if it can only have the purpose to harm somebody (Schikane - chicane). So that's not about the sum, but harm and gain individually, in my reading.
In evolutionary biology aspects of the social sphere such as the sexual ‘Market place’ are considered commons for these purposes. The behaviour of participants can have negative externalities on others and those behaviours might include methods of sexual signaling. So high heels and makeup aren’t the commons, they are means to exploit it.
Right but exploiting or having an advantage doesn't directly translate into damaging 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.
If half of cars are fitted with an obvious guaranteed successful anti theft device, given a certain level of car theft the odds of a car not fitted with the device being targeted are doubled. That’s just basic arithmetic.
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.
Not really, if they're out to break into cars and there are cars around that look like they can be broken into, it seems reasonable to assume that they are likely to try to do so.
education also produces a negative externality. You're "harming" other people by becoming more employable than them
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*...
I have the world's most effective anti-theft device, there is research on this, in my car and this device saved me thousands on the retail price of the vehicle.
My 1997 Civic was stolen despite having a manual transmission that sometimes is faulty. I've also had two Honda del Sols stolen, both were stick shifts. Doesn't seem to help all that much.
The mid-late 90s Civics and Del Sols are highly sought after among Honda fans! The ones with B18 VTEC motors even more so. That's why your cars were stolen despite having a stick shift.
Do any B-series late 90s Civic/del Sols have B18 motors stock? Pretty sure it's all B16A(x) for the VTEC and EX editions, respectively. Integras had the B18B, though. The Integra Type-R (JDM only) had the coveted B18A3 you're referring to, I believe.
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.
You’d be wrong. Car thieves aren’t stealing cars to re-sell them on a lot, they are stealing them for parts for unscrupulous buyers, and street racers are a great market.
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.
This guy is right. D, B, and to a lesser extent, K-series parts were - and ARE - in very, very high demand due to ease of installation, swapping, and durability. Oh yeah, and the secondary market for racing/show cars don't care much if the parts are stolen at all. They expect it, generally.
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.
What version of Integra had a 10,000 RPM redline? Information available online suggests the Type-R had a redline of 8,400 RPM. The S2000, introduced later was notable for its 9,000 RPM redline.
As far as I know, the top spec Type R DC5 Integra was a K20 (same as the EP3 Civic Type R) which is 8400. The older DC2 Integra Type R was 8700rpm. I forget the engine.
My mistake, the redline seems to have grown in my memory. Redline appears to have been 8,200, with a fuel cutoff somewhere south of 9,000, which was very easy to hit in 1st ...
From my recollection, they didn’t have much to say. The car was abandoned in Hillside, NJ just outside of Newark, at the time at least car theft was rampant there so the police were pretty matter of fact about the whole thing. The car got impounded, and it felt like the impound lot and the police department were conspiring to keep it there (like, to get the car out, you had to get a release from the police department on the other side of town from an office with very limited hours, which was only good for one day, and then make it back across town before the impound lot office closed for the day.
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.
My del Sol was stripped. The cops just told me they found the remains of the car and I should come see it. It was heartbreaking but they were pretty professional about it.
My car was in for servicing a few weeks ago, and the garage gave me a hot purple metallic car with tinted dark windows, because that was now their official dealership courtesy car, as supplied by Car Company Head Office.
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.
That's actually pretty smart. Even though it's much easier to remove a laptop cover than to repaint a car, a laptop thief is less likely to target the most brightly coloured, attention-grabbing laptop in the room.
You can safely include large part of Asia as well, in India automatic is still a luxury though semi-automatic models are cropping up in few entry level vehicles.
I'm not sure about the 95% statistic in Europe but it certainly won't last much longer now that over a third of cars sold in the UK are automatic and this number is only increasing. There's no practical benefit of a manual transmission anymore besides a small cost difference (and possibly slightly more reliability), and electrification will only hasten this change.
manuals are still inherently more efficient than fluid couplings, and they are going to weigh 60-150 lbs less than a traditional automatic or dual clutch transmission. also the "small cost difference" is $1000 or more on all the new cars I've looked at recently.
They may be inherently more efficient, all else being equal, but ... all else is not equal. Automatics now get better fuel efficiency than manuals, so expect the trend of automatics taking over to continue.
i would like to see a source on this. i often see DCT or CVT versions of a car that are more efficient, but afaik, traditional fluid coupling automatics still have a hard time beating a manual transmission in the same car.
Modern automatics spend very little time with the fluid coupling. They engage a lockup converter as soon as possible. Combine that with more gears and a computer choosing the shift points, and they are now more efficient than a manual transmission. It's been that way for perhaps the last 10 years or so.
Want a source? Start perusing the manufacturer specs and fuelly pages for cars that still have both options.
Traditional fluid-coupling automatics are not the only ones on the market. A lot of cars now have dual-clutch automatics, and there are others that combine a fluid coupling with a computer-controlled clutch.
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.
I don't think so. At this point, honestly, the modern slushbox outperforms CVTs and DSGs as well (though perhaps not the Porsche Tiptronic, which might still be faster). Modern automatics shift extremely fast, routinely have 8 or more gears, and have lockup torque converters that don't just lockup in overdrive on the freeway, but basically as soon as you're going more than a few mph.
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.
You may be right about the numbers in Europe but it certainly is the case in Italy where automatic cars are nowhere to be seen (except some luxury sedans). I’ll argue this is because is way more fun to drive a manual transmission.
I wasn’t talking about high end italian cars, I was talking about cars most people use in Italy. Last time I was there I forgot my driving license and was traveling with a friend from the US, we had to rent an automatic Volvo S60 for twice the price of a manual VW or fiat (automatic is rare and in premium cars)
That's an insane price difference. In Switzerland I rented an automatic (for a family member not comfortable with a manual) for only about 10% more, and they had multiple decent options. I suspect automatics may be more common here, though, particularly in the future as electric cars are gaining popularity.
In the states, that is merely a deterrent. Most cars here are manual transmissions. If you cannot drive a manual, you have a special driver's license restriction stating that.
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).
> In the states, that is merely a deterrent. Most cars here are manual transmissions. If you cannot drive a manual, you have a special driver's license restriction stating that
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.
A normal vehicle, you mean. There are still a number of enthusiast models that have a manual option, or in some cases (e.g. WRX STI, or Camaro SS 1LE, to name a couple) only come with a manual. For appliance cars, manuals are rare indeed. I think the new G70 from Hyundai has a manual option, but I don't think it's on the higher end model. Unfortunately that's been a trend for quite a while -- when a company does offer a manual, it's never available with all the rest of the good options, you can only get it on a base trim.
I had an old Saab that locked the manual gearshift in reverse when the key was removed. It seemed like it would be fairly difficult to defeat that mechanism without disassembling or destroying the entire shifter.
Back in the 90s I had a club (a girlfriend bought it for me for Valentine’s Day, because it was red.) After a while I stopped locking it when I put it on, reasoning that if someone was determined enough to see it and still break into the car thinking they could get past it then there was no real point in actually locking it.
I used to do that as well. One day I came back to my jeep and the club was stolen but not the jeep. Wasn't sure what to make of that but laugh. Never bothered getting another one.
I saw a car with the club the other day - this first I have seen in I can't even remember how long. The car was in rough shape. Real rough. I mused to my wife that perhaps the car was there to protect the club.
Generally speaking, older vehicles are much easier to steal than newer vehicles. I have a friend with an 1980s Toyota truck who clubs it wherever he goes, not because it's a nice truck, not because he can't afford to lose it, but rather because it will definitely get stolen if he doesn't club it. Without a club, his truck can be stolen in under a minute by any layman using a little more than a flathead. Before he got the club, it was stolen multiple times -- usually turning up a week later, abandoned somewhere, and/or used as a shelter by a homeless person.
Adam Corolla tells a story of an old Nissan pickup he had when he was younger and poorer. It was so easy to steal he wired in a hidden switch to power the fuel pump, truck was stolen a couple of times and he would just walk a couple of blocks to where it was abandoned. I believe he also painted the stereo brown to as a deterrence to thieves looking for stereos to sell.
This is true. We used to call 80s Toyota truck keys the "any key" because any Toyota truck key will unlock and start almost any other Toyota truck from the same era.
It was similar for the 1970s Chevrolets (and I imagine lots of other brands). It was fairly easy to get a keyring with all the actual keys in use, because there were so few variations.
Probably someone who _really_ needs their car, because there's no way they can afford to replace it, and will possibly will lose their job/house without it.
For what it's worth, it reminded me of a passage in a novel (I can't remember which one) by an Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan.
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.
I had a coworker who secured his car with a Club, and this is exactly what happened. The thieves even left the club behind in his parking space. The next night they came back and stole his rental.
it's been a long time since I've seen one, so maybe the lock has changed (used to be a simple doubled sided wafer lock), but in the past it was a lot faster to pick the club open than to saw through a steering wheel. see also the club buster[1].
It's my impression (though I don't have a survey from the burlar's guild to back it up) that criminals very rarely pick locks, or even know how to do so. Instead, they're likely to bypass the lock (e.g. slim jim a car door) or attack it destructively (hacksaw, hammer, bolt cutters, etc...).
you are correct about criminals favoring bypass/destructive entry vs. picking in general (I think this is mentioned in marc tobias' book RE: the uncommon nature of lock forensics) -- I pointed out the other methods because the anecdote references "pro" car thieves. when dealing with high value targets, minimizing damage (to, e.g., a rare/irreplaceable or expensive steering wheel) is more important than the average car theft where someone's just trying to get from point A to point B.
Most cars are stolen by non pro car thieves. They're stolen based on opportunity and whether or not its in an area where under 25s might need transpo. They're going to steal the easiest thing, because they're often just looking for transpo.
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.
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.
At one time in America, keys from one car would unlock, if not start, many thousands of similar cars because of similar or same key bitting. It's interesting that German cars of the same era were harder to break into because of worse economics for lower classes, more car thefts and therefore more secure vehicles... meanwhile American cars weren't really locked that much because post-WW2 boom times were so good, and so, less theft, especially in small towns where everyone knew each other and theft would risk becoming a shunned criminal outlaw.
Knew a guy who used the club with his late model Corvette back in the nineties. He went in a store and when he came out his Corvette was gone and smack dab center of the parking spot he had was the club. Almost like the thief was mocking him.
> And do not pass too quickly over the fact that a car company hires car thieves for consultation. If you are a businessperson, do you regularly engage those who wish to do you harm?
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).
The risk of theft lowers the expected value of having the car. I'll never buy one of those $1000 bikes because of the risk of theft, nice as they might be. I'll go to Wal-Mart.
People regularly confuse "security through obscurity" with "obscuring your security". The first is bad, the second is powerful.
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.
There's a limit to this principle. There's not always something you can fix to prevent people from abusing your product or system.
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.
I think the trouble comes from the fact that most drivers want to place the Club before exiting the vehicle. Installing the Club correctly means that it then blocks your ability to get out of the car.
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.
When common sense fails, it's time for the manufacturer to take some responsibility. A good example of this phenomenon might be the tendency of people to record videos with their phones held upright. Given that it's apparently impractical for the smartphone OS vendor to pop up a warning or advisory notice when eomeone does this, how hard would it be to embed some small contacts in the bezel to administer a mild electrical shock?
In the Club's case, it might have helped to include a simple "This end up" label in the appropriate spot.
Well it might reduce the set of car thieves to ones who are sufficiently skilled to be capable of it. Most front doors may be bashed down due to fire safety but locking it still deters some thieves.
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.
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.