@joe_in_philly
What is the purpose of the wire seal?
Well, theoretically, that's to avoid people replacing the plate on a similar car (for example, having two cars exactly alike and then pay only one register..
But, in fact, that's only another way to steal money from people. It's not unusual that the wire gets rusted and break. every time it happens, people have to pay EVEN MORE taxes to get a new seal. other times, vandals (usually artsy fartsy teenagers) on the streets simply break them just for fun.
That's Brazil, the country of the fees over fees over fees.
Every Brazilian works for almost 5 months per year only to pay taxes.
And if that's not enough, you should see the national traffic code... the traffic tickets are outrageous! (some of them are perfectly understandable and acceptable), for example 971 reais for DUI plus 1 year without the DL + a recycling course (watching accident videos, etc) to get the DL back... 127x5 if the driver has got the same fine before.) and if the driver UI causes an accident (even without victims), it's not a traffic infraction but a penal crime. (and can go to jail). if a driver UI causes and accident and kill someone, it's considered intentional murder.
And the standard to be considered under influence is 0.06mg of alcohol per liter of blood. (if you eat a salad with wine vinegar and in sequence use a mouthwash like Lysterine, and take a breath test, that's enough to get more than that level of alcohol in your blood)
127 reais for stopping on the pedestrian line in a stoplight, 127 x 3 if you cross on red light.
even more taxes? the government has a mandatory insurance. all cars must pay for it. But it's not like a private insurance... it's valid only for the victims, not the car.... if you crash and kill someone, this mandatory insurance will give to the victim's family something near 5 thousand dollars. But... to get this money, the burocracy is outrageous... some people wait for more than 10 years to get the indenization.
even more? the tolls. BR277, for example. (connects my city to the rest of the state... leaving the city there's the first toll (around 7 dollars) 30 km ahead, the second, (9 dollars), 10 kilometers ahead, the third (5 dollars)
A 600km trip can cost more than 5 hundred dollars on tolls.
At this price, you may think that our roads are almost better than Autobahn in Germany, right?
Well.. the reality is that we don't find holes on the asfalt... we find pieces of asfalt in the holes. max speed is 110km/h, but in some areas it's impossible to drive fastar than 30km/h (and the roads aren't duplicated, thousands of people die every year). THe last time it was fixed was.. maybe... more than 20 years ago.
Want something else? In any "decent" country, it's normal to sue the government if, for example, you crash because a stoplight had a malfunction and two streets got green at the same time. In Taxzil thare's a law that says that citizens can't sue the government. Convenient (for them) isn't it?
And guess where is all that money? NOBODY KNOWS. (But a politician was caught in the airport with some millions in the underwear a few years ago)
The newest stealing strategy is the plates changing. the old plate was light gray with black fonts. They changed the standards saying that the grey is difficult to be caught on photographic radars. Well, that's plausible but.... everybody has to pay all those taxes again to replace the plates. the new one is almost the same, but has a reflective varnish so scary that they look like glowing in the dark.
Leaving trafic... lets go to other areas:
Health: the worst public hospital in the U.S. is hundreds of times better than a standard brazilian hospital.
Education: Our schools are terrible, obsolete and even the educational plan is poor. Teachers fom most of the federal universities started a strike almost 6 months ago. Student's simply lost the whole year because of the absenses.
social security/retirement: Never get old in brazil! Work hard while you're young and then run away from this country. You pay vey high taxes during your whole life and when you retire, what you get isn't enought to pay the electricity bill. (i worked my whole life with a registered monthly income around 15 thousand dollars and now that I'm retired, i get something around 150 dollars per month)
Luckily I've made a private retirement plan from my bank, decades ago... so i can get 5k dollars/month, and I still working otherwise money would be a huge problem for me.