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

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Tue Jul 10 13:40:21 2001

comments inline

Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marvin" <marvin_at_rain.org>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 10:16 AM
Subject: Re: helmet laws was : 4th of July Hypocricy (was: OT Celebration)


>
>
> "Eric J. Korpela" wrote:
> >
> > You'd first need to show that there is substantial cost to the state and the
<snip>
> > of libertarianism. Libertarians want the freedom to do everything and
> > they want everyone else to pick up the tab for cleaning up their mess.
>
It may seem that way, but Libertarians (note that it's capitalized, i.e. the
"Party Line") don't want everyone to clean up their mess, but they do want the
right to make the mess. I'm not clear on how they propose to get the mess
cleaned up, however. The most efficient and effective way to handle this is to
find a way to keep them, and everyone else, from making the mess in the first
place. That results in helmet laws. Solutions more appealing to the
libertarian types probably involve less restriction on headwear. Unfortunately,
though libertarianism implies cleaning up one's own mess, there's room for
debate about whose mess it really is. Also, the mess made by spilling a
helmetless libertarian's brains on the sidewalk are unlikely to be cleaned up by
the libertarian. How do we deal with that?
>
> You are only looking at the direct costs while totally ignoring the hard to
> measure indirect costs. The net effect is "form over substance". Care to
> show some facts behind your last statement? Otherwise, label it as "your
> opinion".
>
>
Received on Tue Jul 10 2001 - 13:40:21 BST