Helmet Use should be a personal choice

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by kmkindred

The government (local, state, and federal) has to calculate the cost of "risk" to the society.

There you go. That pretty much sums up the "nanny state".
Alas, I think it is crap. That is NOT a function of government in a so-called free socitey.

The government should have only TWO functions:

1) Doing things that are not practical for individuals to do like building roads and providing for a national defense.
2) Preventing individuals from being victimized by other people or groups.

That's it.......per the Constitution, in the US at least. There is nothing in the Constitution that says the government shall protect us from ourselves; quite to the contrary, in fact.

Is wearing seatbelts a good idea? Is wearing a helmet a good idea? Is not eating too many Big Macs a good idea? Is walking at least 30 minutes a day a good idea? ON and on and on.........
YES, no question about it but it is NOT a proper function of our Constitutional government to FORCE any of those things on anybody.

I used to think that the "cost to society" was a somewhat reasonable arguement for mandating helmet use........until I saw a study done by, I think, the National Insurance Inst. which concluded that the "tremendous additional insurance cost" of treating the additional injuries if NOBODY wore a helmet would be something like 5 CENTS per year for each policy holder. So much for that arguement.

Unlike helmet use, coronary disease in this country costs multi-billions of dollars and is the leading cause of death (or right near the top, not sure of the most recent counts). The "cost to society" is tremendous. Do you think the government should mandate a maximum weight for everyone in the country......and make it illegal to sell red meat........and limit the amount of sugar that foods can contain ????

Maybe YOU don't but some people DO believe that. It is a VERY slippery slope.

The government needs to take better care of IT'S business......which has been woefully neglected for at least 20 years or so, allowing big business and big finance to rape the economy.......and leave you and me the F*** alone.