helmet laws was : 4th of July Hypocricy (was: OT Celebration)

From: Eric J. Korpela <korpela_at_ellie.ssl.berkeley.edu>
Date: Tue Jul 10 11:03:44 2001

> At 08:47 PM 7/9/01 -0700, Eric wrote:
> > > > IMHO it's crazy to be on a motorcycle without a helmet, so why not just
> > > > abandon the helmet requirement and let Darwin have the last word . . .
> > >
> > > Because our society and government are built around protecting the
> > > stupid.
> >
> >More to the point, my tax dollars go to pay the unpaid medical bills
> >of the stupid, and when too many stupid people get head injuries my car
> >and health insurance rates go up.
>
> Hell, that applies to anything you can name; (1) car crash victums,
> (2) skate boarding accidents, (3) people tripping on the side walks, etc
> etc etc.

(1) Ever wondered why we have seat belt laws?
(2) Some places require helmets and pads for skateboarders.
(3) The number of people suffering suffering catastrophic injury from
     tripping on the sidewalk is a substantially lower than the number
     that would be injured by
>
> The
> list is endless. Should you let the "hospital costs" rational be used to
> govern everything we do?

Of course not, it should be used only where it makes sense. Your attempt
at reductio ad absurdum has failed.

> What if the next law is that
> no one will be allowed to work on their own computers since they could be
> injured and the public would have to pay the cost of their
> hospitalization?

You'd first need to show that there is substantial cost to the state and the
people involved in people working on their own computers.

> >If there's an outcry against helmet laws, here's a simple solution.
> >Require riders who don't wear helmets to either get additional "no helmet
> >inurance,"
>
> That appears to be exactly what the state of Florida has done. So
> far it seems to be working.

No, it's not what the state of Florida has done. I doubt one of the
questions on the insurance application is "do you wear a helmet?" Even if
it is, I doubt it gets answered truthfully by those who don't. What the
helmetless hoard has done is the get their additional costs transferred to
those who are responsible enough to wear helmets. That is the true goal
of libertarianism. Libertarians want the freedom to do everything and
they want everyone else to pick up the tab for cleaning up their mess.

Eric
Received on Tue Jul 10 2001 - 11:03:44 BST