Friday afternoon, I took the afternoon off for some R and R. I was lounging by my pool and I fell asleep. While napping I had a very unusual dream.
I dreamt that after the Obama administration passed its healthcare legislation, the President decided that he wanted every citizen that was of legal driving age to own an automobile. Of course, it had to get the required mileage, etc. In addition, he wanted every automobile to be covered by insurance that included comprehensive coverage with an auto glass endorsement and no deductible.
There would be no restrictions such as pricing caps, etc. You would have the freedom to have your vehicle serviced by any collision or auto glass shop that you desired. What was very interesting was that unlike the healthcare policies that covered the President and members of the Congress, the very people that would pass this legislation wanted the ability to opt out and be able to subscribe to the same policy offered to the general public at large. You see, they were on some policy underwritten by some company whose ad prop was a green lizard type and they wanted to have the ability to have their auto glass replaced by a quality shop, using quality materials and employing quality technicians.
They did not want to be subjected to harassment by some third-party when calling in their claims. They simply wanted the freedom to have their cars serviced where they could trust that the job would be done correctly and safely. What was ironic was that everyone who attended the town hall meetings held by their representatives were adamant about having this program enacted. They actually wanted the government to legislate this new program. There was no concern for the cost of the program or the fact that the government would be involved.
People were tired about having to listen to some customer service representative for 20 minutes trying to talk them into taking their car to some box store styled repair and replacement shop. They were exhausted after simply trying to make an appointment with a shop of their choosing and getting railroaded by some individual located at some call center in the Midwest.
Well, after months of debate and public outcry, the bill was finally reconciled in a joint committee of both houses and the day finally came for it to come up for a vote. A short time after the voting began, I woke up after being licked across the face by my 140-pound black lab, Otis. Unfortunately, we will never know how the vote would turn out.
What a dream. In the course of a short, eventful half-hour snooze, the ills of the automotive glass repair and replacement industry were almost fixed. Back to the nightmare.
