Those of you who might scrape up the money for a new car may notice that it will, by law, include a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) at a cost of about $400 (no, it isn’t itemized and it’s not optional).

The federal nanny believes that, for your own good, you must have a light on your dash board that tells you when your tires’ pressure is low. That’s about 10 million cars X $400/car = a lot of money not available for other things.

By the way, TPMS by all accounts is troublesome in operation, prone to failure and expensive to repair.

The last estimate I read claimed that federal mandates added $1 trillion of cost to the economy each year. These are hidden taxes, instantly passed through to the consumer.

Sounds like ours is a rendezvous with stupidity.