You think woke will beat corrupt/lobbying? I have an older car that needs the smog check every year, and for the last 5 years that's entailed paying a mechanic the better half of a thousand dollars to get the check engine light to go away (for the same issue) each time. The whole thing is an utter scam that only the poor people deal with.
I don't think being poor makes you a minority in this country, except in the offices where the laws are being made.
Washington state eliminated smog testing a couple years ago. I'm not sure how big the smog test station operator's lobby is, and if the state determines that having smog testing is a net drain on the budget, they'll eventually eliminate it. Whether they say "it's too expensive for us to run", "cars are way cleaner these days", or "we're doing this for poor people" remains to be seen.
Now, I don't know if California makes or loses money on smog testing (does the state get a cut?), but I'm still guessing it's going to go away at some point before too long.
> paying a mechanic the better half of a thousand dollars to get the check engine light to go away (for the same issue) each time. The whole thing is an utter scam that only the poor people deal with.
And a hell of a lot of people as well as the entire insurance industry want to economically incentivize those people to stop driving (for both good and bad reasons) so they're on the same side. Every dealer and manufacturer wants to sell cars so they'll also be on that side.
I don't think being poor makes you a minority in this country, except in the offices where the laws are being made.