GPS, before governments made them laws, I bought a crash helmet to ride my motor cycle as my head seemed like a very fragile brittle thing to be hurtling along at even 60kph with concrete things all over the place. Before they were required, I bought and installed seat belts in my old heap 1951 rusty Hillman which tended to bald tyres, no clutch, no handbrake, etc because hurtling along at even 50 kph with a steering column not far from my chest and a windscreen not far further and lots of ways to stop suddenly didn't seem a good combination.
Being considerate, I also bought one for the passenger seat. Interestingly, a girlfriend of the time wouldn't wear it because she didn't like the feeling of being restrained. Now, she's a fanatical seat belt wearer who goes ape if somebody doesn't have a seat belt on, while I think that there are enough air bags, safety glass etc that I might even not wear it occasionally except that the habit to put it on is so strong that it's easier to just put it on for the most absurdly brief trips at 10kph.
Sometimes though, I like to ride my motor scooter [now], or bicycle, without a crash helmet. But I'm obliged to put one on because of the dopey government. The distress of having to think about those troglodytic kleptocrats makes me likely to crash, like having somebody yammering on your back-swing at golf.
What people don't understand is that so-called "Safety" costs lives.
For example, the crash fire service at Auckland airport has cost $100s of millions over decades and they'll never save anyone. For $100s of millions, thousands of lives could be saved by spending that money in directly life-saving ways. For example, nutrition improvement of foetuses would cut death and disability due to spina bifida [a current newsworthy topic here]. Iodine deficiency causes major amounts of life-long brain deficit in children. There are many ways in which $500 million could be "safer" than wasting it on looking safe rather than being safe.
One of the things your beloved governments do is ensure construction is sound. Except they don't. They clip the ticket, charge heaps for permits, resource consents and all sorts of nonsense, but now there are $billions in leaking buildings in New Zealand because of dopey government spivs pretending to do something useful, but doing nothing except collecting money and bossing people. It would have been better to leave people to hire a reputable firm of building guarantee inspectors who would provide insurance that buildings are sound.
There was no government guarantee or inspectorate on petrol, diesel or lubrication [which I was involved with in BP Oil]. But I made very sure that what I was doing ensured the products would be successful. BP had a brand to sell and it is not considered good form to ruin a major corporate brand.
I'd rather depend on a medical company's brand than the assurance of the government-protected "We bury our mistakes" medical cartel. Because it's all government, there's less quality assurance than in buying a can of baked beans from Watties at the local supermarket.
You are right that your little brain can't analyse all situations. But you know enough that reputable brands have a lot to lose by messing up and getting their dead victims in the news. When another corpse is wheeled out by a government department, there's nothing you can do about it.
The intellectual horse power of traffic engineers is evident at university. It's also evident in the streets of New Zealand.
Government quality control delivers the Lada. Private industry delivers the Lexus. You like Government Motors. I like Toyota. Each to their own, but you want me to pay for your Lada and want me to have to use one too.
Mqurice |
