Posted on 01/27/2003 12:21:52 PM PST by shortstop
What do you think of seatbelt laws?
Are they a good idea, or a bad idea?
You know the ones I mean. They vary from state to state, but they’re basically alike. If you’re driving a car, and you don’t have a seat belt on, you can get a ticket.
Sometimes it’s just the driver, sometimes it’s everyone in the car.
You’ve heard the sob stories. They roll out some state trooper, or a paramedic, and have him tell you a heartbreaking story about how many accident scenes he’s been to, and how it breaks his heart to see the carnage, and how seatbelts are the only hope we have.
And we see how much the state loves us, passing laws to protect us, shielding us from our own stupidity.
And we’re grateful.
We see seatbelt laws as a sign of social progress, as proof we’re an enlightened society.
But are we right?
Are seatbelt laws a good idea?
The answer to that, surprisingly, has nothing to do with seatbelts.
Because there’s no question about that. If you don’t use a seatbelt, you are an idiot. The benefit and protection that come from seatbelts cannot be denied.
Buckle your seatbelt. Don’t start the car until you have, and until everyone else has as well.
But that’s not the point.
Seatbelt laws aren’t about seatbelts, they are about freedom. And the role of government.
The question isn’t, “Should you wear a seatbelt?” It is, “Can government force you to wear a seatbelt?’
And, in spite of what the state legislatures have done, the answer to the second question, in America, is clear. The answer is, “No.”
We are a free people. Our government, as envisioned in our founding documents, is small and weak. It is not meant to make every decision or to legislate in every area. It is not meant to run our lives.
And yet we have come to let it.
Piece by piece, inch by inch, American freedom has dwindled and dwindled.
We are the victims of tyranny in the name of compassion.
Slavery in the guise of protection.
Each benefit of government has come at the cost of a corresponding liberty.
We are safer, but we are less free.
And we have been robbed.
Because freedom is better than safety. Liberty more important than life, and self-reliance of greater worth than governmental paternalism.
We are a nation built on the belief that all power resides with the people. Government can only exercise the power it has been granted by the people. In America, the power of government was meant to be severely limited. In America, the government is to be the servant, not the master. In America, people are believed to be the best off when they are the most free, when they run their own lives and make their own decisions.
But our government treats us like children. It takes our liberty from us with hardly a second thought. It expands its power over us without restraint. It mandates by force of law in matters that are and should be entirely personal and private.
Like seatbelts.
Sure, the government says it is acting for our best good.
But, shouldn’t we decide as free individuals what is in our best good?
Doesn’t government’s desire to protect us from harm unavoidably separate us from God-given liberty?
Of course it does.
And yet we have taken it like sheep.
We have thanked and re-elected those legislators who have orchestrated our bondage. We have cooperated with the squandering of our national birthright. What others fought and died for, we have flushed down the toilet. Because we haven’t been smart enough to remember what this country is all about.
Freedom.
And every policy or decision of the government must pass a simple test: Does it diminish our individual liberty?
If it does, it must not be allowed. If it does, it is inherently unconstitutional. If it does, it is dangerously and unacceptably un-American.
We must be able to distinguish between what counts and what does not. We must not be confused by irrelevance. Like those sob stories the cops and insurance people tell about seatbelts.
They are beside the point.
Seatbelt laws aren’t about seatbelts.
They are about law, and the proper role of law.
And whether or not you wear a seatbelt is your business. It is not the government’s business. You are free to be stupid, and the government has no right to outlaw stupidity.
Seatbelt laws are velvet chains. We’re told they are for our own good, but they are nothing more than government oppression. They are Big Brother pretending to be our mommy.
And one more example of how we have come to accept what earlier generations of Americans would have fought to the death to resist.
GREAT point.
Thank you. I still have a best friend because of a seatbelt. 70 MPH, drivers side front fender(his car) head on against driver's side fender(other car). He walked away with a bruise on his shoulder from the belt. He was driving Civic hatchback. Utterly totalled. Fortunately, no one killed. I haven't driven 10 feet without my belt on since.
I do, but not because of some silly law.
Amen!
We can go after the motorcycles next. Then the smokers. Oh wait we are already doing that. Then the eaters of un-healthy foods. Then those that do not exercise at least 3 days a week for an hour at a time. Then those that don't get enough sleep. Then those that sit too close to the T.V. Then those that don't wear helmets in the tub. What a great country we will finally have!
We cannot solve one stupidity by having other stupidities.
Put the financial burden back on the individual, private organizations, and insurance companies.
Justifying laws that create monetary penalties, jail sentences, and/or property confiscation by saying that the costs of society are too large is definately the slippery slope. Where does it end?
Rush Limbaush's jokes seem to be prophetic: banning SUV's, tobacco, score keeping and competitive sports, ect. I'm frightened to see what he jokes about next.
FWIW, I've worn a seatbelt every time since helping prep a body for the morgue of a young man who did not wear a seatbelt. But mandate it? No.
You'd love NY State then. The Karl Marx brigade are usually the first in the country to find new rules to save us from ourselves. In fact we were the first ones to start seat belt laws. After all, the insurance companies donate lots of money to those campaign coffers, they have a right to be heard.
A moving violation in DC!
I would like to add that you don't even have the option anymore to BUY a vehicle without both a driver and passenger side airbag. I work for GM and here are some intersting tidbits for you.
When you buckle your seatbelt you improve your chances of surviving a front end collision by 65%.
When you buckle your seatbelt in a vehicle equipped with a driver's side airbag, you improve your chances of surviving a front end collision by another 5%.
When you buckle your seaatbelt in the passenger seat, your chances improve 50%
Adding a passenger side airbag has had a zero percent effect on survivability. In other words, the passenger side airbag is virtually worthless.(Understand we are talking about survivability, a case can be made for improvements in reducing injury, however, any improvement here must be weighed against the infant deaths caused by passenger side airbags.)
In other words our government has mandated things in the name of safety which don't make us any safer, just poorer, as these widgets add much to the price of the car AND insurance premiums.
We have thanked and re-elected those legislators who have orchestrated our bondage. We have cooperated with the squandering of our national birthright. What others fought and died for, we have flushed down the toilet. Because we haven’t been smart enough to remember what this country is all about.
I don't know how we get back to where we were, I agree that the comparatively minuscule improvement in safety has not been worth the now epidemic increase in the erosion of our freedoms.
Upon a time I would have bought that. However, look around outside: this country is not designed with human beings first and foremost, it is designed as a habitat for cars, and I really don't see this as particularly debatable (perhaps I'm wrong, but I'd like to see the proof). Once that happened, it became a right.
Frankly, it's kind of pathetic that you even need a law like this instead of relying on people to care about their own self-preservation independently.
A great argument against socialized medicine, by the way. I don't want to pay for other peoples stupid health choices or be overregulated in this arena either. People should be able to smoke, eat cheeseburgers for every meal, and ride a motorcycle without a helmet, but I don't want to pay their medical bills.
Just like with private citizens, just because one has the right to power to do something doens't mean that they should do it.
I have the right to spend all my money on payday. Should I?
The government may enact specific seatbelt, cell phone, eating, drinking, and farding rules. Should they?
Just because they can doesn't mean they should.
Right, and I am waiting to see what happens when somebody tells that to the cop who is issuing the ticket or the judge when it is taken to court.
"Government can only exercise the power it has been granted by the people. In America"
Funny, I don't recall voting for a seatbelt law. Come to think of it, I don't remember voting for a lot of liberty-robbing laws. I don't remember any of my representatives ever asking my opinion about it either.
If we’re going to regulate dangerous behavior we need to apply the same propaganda to every thing…wearing helmets for all ladders above two steps, outlaw sky diving, mandatory pads and helmet for skiing, ice skating, etc.
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