[Frank Lee]

It may be the worst but when private citizens and entities utterly fail, it becomes necessary.

One good example: emissions regulations. Are you old enough to remember the howling, whining, and stamping of feet when they had to do away with draft tubes and put PCV valves in? There was a rocky learning curve but now we can plainly see that engines are superior in almost every way because of those regs, and I highly doubt market forces alone would have brought us to this point.

metroschultz: that is exactly what I had in mind when I made my comment. I had a feeling all along there was nothing wrong with the tires. I had them- or ones very similar- as OEM equipment on my F150 and I LOVED them. Wish I would have went to a used tire store and stocked up. I've gone through a couple sets of tires since and none of the aftermarket tires have been as good.

I'm the sort that notices all this little stuff when out on the road- things like, a tire is low, they forgot their gas cap, your tanker is dripping, your brake light is out, etc. I used to get people's attention and point those things out. But, now I've been left stranded one too many times, so fellow motorists that could use a hint or a hand can now go **** themselves.