" The Parking Meter "
By Jose Reyes
This is the story of the original "One Arm Bandit", the invention that revolutionized the concept of "Stealing People's Money". Plain and simple, this is just another form of "Legalized Robbery". Its a phony excuse to steal money from innocent, hard-working people. This gadget was crudely introduced to the public by a corrupt official on July 16, 1935 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Carl C. Magee was the mastermind behind this scheme to legally steal money from the public, so they can occupy a parking space. He was assigned to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce Traffic Committee to fix a parking problem.
The main reason why the parking meter was created, was to reduce parking congestion. Apparently, people who worked in the downtown area of the city, where all the businesses were located, were staying home all day, and leaving few spaces for shoppers and others who visited the central business district. This concept caught on with other major cities and this technique of "ripping off ", the general public, circulated around the world rather quickly.
Well, this is because there were just too many cars for the amount of available spaces to park, so because of this, the public has to pay? The mismanagement of road construction and the miscalculation of the growth of the automobile industry, by the local governments, were the blame for this.
In the beginning it was very tough to enforce this rules and the public was enraged, so many townships came up with the "Ingenious" idea of "Parking Lots" to relieve the tension. This relieved traffic and kept the cars away from the main streets, where all the commercial businesses were located. Not only was it a great idea, but parking was "Free Parking" again, Yeah! So parking spaces were created for everybody to park their vehicles and everybody was happy again. This should have definitely been "The End" of the "The Parking Meter". The commercial community prospers with more shoppers and "City Hall" could collect more sales taxes from the businesses, to maintain public order and maintain healthy living conditions for its residents.
But of course, this was just a deception
by the corrupt officials, they were already a couple of steps ahead of the public,
you see, this just gave them the opportunity to install more Parking Meters
and where?, In the "Parking Lots". They charged 5 Cents for an
hour, that was a lot in those days. 
In
New York City the parking meter also started at 5 Cents an hour and now it's at
1.50 an hour.
What a racket:
The "Greedy" Mr. Magee patented his invention in 1935 and started "The Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company and proceeded to produce and distribute the "mechanized thief ", worldwide. As a result of this, there are an estimated 5 Million parking meters in use, in the United States alone.
In 1936 Donald
Duncan, the owner of "The Duncan Toy Company" and the inventor of
"The Duncan YO YO" decided to enter the business of parking meters
also. Now its a multi-million dollar industry. 
Conclusion:
The parking meter brought all the rip off schemes that we, the innocent automobile owners, are witnessing in the present time. All these ridiculous rules and regulations that make it difficult to leave our cars parked and get all the shopping done without receiving a $55 dollar summons. I thought the whole reason for the parking meter was to be able to park near the stores and go shopping but instead its just a trap to steal our hard-earned money. Now we have, " No Parking for 3 Hours", for cleaning regulations, "Alternate Side of the Street Parking", "No Parking Anytime", and the one and only "No Standing". Even if you have a roll of quarters in your pocket, they have the "2 Hour Parking" thing going on. Now there's plenty of spaces to park to go shopping but you can't, because you have to make room for the "Bus Stop" and who do you think controls that system of transportation?, "City Hall". I thought "City Hall" is there to help its citizens, but all they are trying to do is screw us, every which way they can. Good luck and read the signs carefully, and read them over, even if you've parked there the day before, because they like to change them overnight. Never blame the ticket on yourself, you haven't committed any crime at all, there are too many meter maids out there. Blame it on the sneaky, "Low Life", "Traitor", who gave it to you. Now I know how the innocent Cuban people feel about the spies Castro has infiltrated among its citizens.
