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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (9722)	3/25/2001 10:14:00 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

I have a problem with the personal freedom to do dangerous things, when everyone else in society has to pay for them. If I thought that the choice were the binary one you pose, I might agree with you. But there are other ways to deal with the problem. Society doesn't HAVE to pay for them. If people want to take risks, let them take the risk. Rather than making the taking of risks illegal, let the risk taker suffer the consequences. It's called freedom. It may seem that free adults could use nannies. There's certainly plenty of evidence to support that notion. But society can do only so much to save people from themselves and still be a free society. Better to give them needed information and then let them make their own decisions. Regarding fluoride, it's late, I'm tired, and I'm not really interested in researching the matter just to debate it here. I can't get too exercised over fluoride. Regarding seat belts, yes, most people are better protected with them than without them. I don't have the figures handy. It's eighty percent or so. Only really stupid people would fail to wear seat belts if their seat belts fit them properly. Now, if we're going to go around sacrificing people, it makes more sense to me to sacrifice those who are too stupid to wear their seat belts than those who are physically configured beyond the 80th percentile. I know you're not crazy about fat people. I don't know how you feel about short people. But you've made it quite clear how you feel about stupid people and I'd bet you'd rather sacrifice the stupid people, too. That is, if we have to sacrifice anyone. But we don't. We can design seatbelts that fit virtually everyone and we should. Karen