CJ:
In other words, "Allow me to be irresponsible, and I'll allow you all to pay for the consequences of my irresponsibility." chookter: That sounds more like a problem with socialism than helmets.
chookter, you've cut right to the heart of the issue. This needs to be stated over and over. As it is now, this argument has been largely absent from the public debate over helmet and seatbelt laws. We need to change that - good job!
We don't walk away from a drunk who crashes by the side of the road: "You made your choice, now you'll have to learn to live with it!" No. We rush them to the hospital for care and treatment. We heal their broken bones. And then we throw them in prison! That is because we live in a Christian culture, where each and every human being has immense worth and value in the eyes of the vast majority of the populace. If we were to just shug and let the drunk alone to die beside the road, if his life had no value in our eyes, then we wouldn't need a democracy or a republic, we wouldn't need to grant universal sufferage. We'd just be a bunch of serfs to enrich the ruling class and cannon fodder for their wars to keep them in their feudal power. You ignore the drunk's broken bones only at the peril of the Constitution, whose preamble states that all men are created equal and have the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; it doesn't say death, slavery to vice, and the pursuit of unneeded suffering.
Use any label you want to. You can wrongly call it socialism, but really it's just basic human decency in a modern society with a highly defined division of labor. It is pure lunacy, though, to imagine that the vast majority of your American neighbors are as inured and calloused as the ideologues, are going to just shrug at your broken body lying in their gutter, and sneer: "Let 'im learn the hard way just how unforgiving metal and asphalt are!" Us conservatives are really big on personal responsibility, while ideologues apparently favor torture and a feudal disregard for human rights.
Personally, I liked the Republican-sponsored bill which was narrowly defeated by the Democrats.