DRIVING WHILE DUMB
This piece on the shrinking minority of people who refuse to wear seatbelts, reminds me of two of my firmly held beliefs:
1. Seatbelt laws are wrong. Period. No one should be made to wear anything he doesn't want, nor should any individual's safety be the government's business. If someone wants to harm himself in any way, it's his business. Same regarding motorcycle helmets, remaining near the coast during a hurricane, watching sports obsessively, etc. The right to be an idiot should be sacred.
2. Anyone who drives without a seatbelt is an idiot.
Sometimes the herd culls itself, without any outside interference.
1. Seatbelt laws are wrong. Period. No one should be made to wear anything he doesn't want, nor should any individual's safety be the government's business. If someone wants to harm himself in any way, it's his business. Same regarding motorcycle helmets, remaining near the coast during a hurricane, watching sports obsessively, etc. The right to be an idiot should be sacred.
2. Anyone who drives without a seatbelt is an idiot.
Sometimes the herd culls itself, without any outside interference.
posted by Mike at 10:23 AM
6 Comments:
Mike:
Ought we force children to wear seatbelts?
Surely so. I mean it's one thing to let an idiot jepordise his own life, it's another to allow him to do the same to a child?
Sometimes the government's role is to protect people from themselves. Admittedly, it's a very fine line, one which requires a balancing of the cost, impact & inconvenience protecting that person versus the benefit.
Here, I think the sum total reduction of civil liberty and inconvenience of forcing people to wear belts is minor when compared to the benefits.
If we let all the idiots kill themselves - who'll wash my car in 5 years time? Who'll cook my dinner? I'm relying on these people - don't kill them all off!
Bdodg-
In terms of adults, I just can't go with you here. No one gets harmed if an idiot kills himself, whether intentionally of otherwise.
As to kids, though, I should have included the following as number three: Children are not adults, and don't enjoy the same rights as adults.
Therefore, the children of the morons who drive without seatbelts should be required to wear them . . . and to stay 150 yards away from me and mine once they reach the age of majority.
Yes, I agree with you in theory... my objections would be in form of the now parent-less kids sice they were safely buckled up in the back while mopm and dad flew through the windshield, and the public health costs of the devastating injuries resulting from not being buckled.
Of course I have nothing to back that up...
And *that's* where Bdodg's carwashers & cooks come in. Parents fly through the widshield? You get sent to Australia to become a house slave for lawyers & engineers . . . or both simultaneously, if you're lucky enough.
Again, can we get a "what what" for Darwin.
The original Chuck D.
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