Seatbelt laws and liberty

What the title said, plus a tangent about private regulation vs. public law.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Seatbelt
• laws
• seat
• belt
• liberty
• ridley
• report
• ridleyreport
• law
• government
• public
• automobile
• car
• auto

[js68fl]

Too many people lack common sense, that's why these laws are popping up everywhere. Because they decide against buckling up and get splattered all over the road, as a taxpayer I have to pay for such idiotic behavior. So yes, we need these seatbelt laws, plain and simple. Why should you be allowed to not buckle up when you know your kids are going to watch everything you do - you are promoting negligent parenting by teaching them carelessness and that rights are more important than safety.

[AtheistUndergrad]

So you're saying that it is morally justified to tell others how to live their lives because others "know better" how they should? Why not follow this to its logical extension, health care? In such a world, fatty foods would be illegal because they increase the risk of heart disease. It's the same principle. What right does the government have to say how people should keep themselves safe? Furthermore, why should the government own the highways? These are legitimate questions.

[MaxikingWolke22]

@AtheistUndergrad

These are stupid questions. The government has every right needed to care about people's safety. Government must involve to keep the order. This involves seatbelt, gun law and everything "unfree" else. The example with the arms in the third minute is ridiculous.

Instead of bulletproof vests, government does limit guns.

If you don't like regulations as seatbelts, red lights and so on, try driving in Africa. This is the price you have to pay to live in a developed country.

[AtheistUndergrad]

If you don't see where seatbelts are different from red lights, you fail to understand the difference between imposing order and infringing on individual rights. The crux of my argument is that the government has no business forcing an individual to keep themselves safe, not that it has no business keeping people safe from others. The individual issue is not really the point, but is rather an example to point out a larger concept.

[AtheistUndergrad]

I have to correct myself. I didn't actually mean that the government's place is to protect people from each other, but rather to compel people to maintain order. Criminal laws should have two purposes, and those are to deter people from infringing on others' rights, and when they fail to deter people from doing so they provide a means of holding them accountable for their actions. I cannot advocate a law which does not do both of these, ergo I cannot support the mandatory seatbelt law.

[MaxikingWolke22]

Though, it is criminal for oil tankers to release oil on the sea to flush the tanks, although nobody is harmed by that. Furthermore, as you can see, there are lots of youtube-videos that show that a person not fasting her seatbelt does a lot of harm to other passengers.

[AtheistUndergrad]

Your first example is false. Pollution is harmful to people and animals alike, and oil dumping is pollution. I can't speak to your second point, but I could argue that even if this is true, the passengers could make a point of telling the person to buckle up, or they could choose not to ride with them.

[brianjc2002]

Cops don't know if you are breaking the law because many people don't have to wear them. I am exempt from the law because of a disability.

[bobdole57]

if the roads were private, you would not be legally compelled by force to pay for the roads, and thus the use of the roads and your funding of the roads is entirely voluntary. If roads were private and they have a rule you don't like you don't have to use them OR PAY FOR THEM.

In the case of public roads, you don't have to use them, sure, but one way or another, you pay for them. And its bullshit.

Capitalism wins every time.

[liamunderscoret]

@liamunderscoret However it could also be said that having potentially larger penalties for being at fault in an accident would discourage reckless driving.

[liamunderscoret]

Although I agree that people should be free to decide whether or not to protect themselves, seatbelt laws protect not only the driver in an accident, but other parties involved. For example, if I am at fault in a rear-end crash on someone wearing a seatbelt who walks away from the accident with only some minor injuries, I will have to pay much less through my insurance than if I had hit someone not wearing a seatbelt who became a quadriplegic.

[cwood4ever]

@js68fl Lets outlaw motorcycles because according to you they will get splattered on the road, AND YES THEY DO.

[Polarcupcheck]

The statistic is each and everyone of us are costing the "system" money in some way. If the sole objective is to save the system money, shouldn't we find what the most common wrong is? Wouldn't that save the most money? Sure. Why focus efforts on something that accounts for very little? It is like changing your light bulbs to CFL when you A/C costs you an extra $100 a month.

[js68fl]

@Polarcupcheck So far your "love" of statistics has yet to appear here anywhere to prove anything to support your anti-seatbelt crusade.

[Polarcupcheck]

@js68fl I love statistics, and I'm sure we could find some that you are not on the perfect side of and pile up the fines.

[js68fl]

@Polarcupcheck If more self-righteous idiots like you did a little statistical research you would know that it isn't just about revenue. But that's okay, continue acting as if you know everything, and leave the statistical data to those who see it everyday and understand it.

[Polarcupcheck]

@js68fl Like I said, lets get together, find your not so perfect behavior, and start droppping $100 dollar fines for every burger you eat, or one dollar for every minute of exercise under the ideal everyday. Everytime you forget to wash your hands, or perhaps, not to our standards, we'll impose more fines.

The point is, you are giving a snobbery speech just to make yourself feel better, rather than using logic.