Safety vs Freedom: Should Adults be Forced to Wear Seatbelts?

[a completely inoffensive name]

How are motorcycles required? And helmets serve little purpose on a motorcycle, they simply move the injury from the head to the neck.

I would assume that there are transportation purposes better suited for a more mobile, two wheeled single person vehicle just as there are transportation purposes better suited for an 18 wheeler. I haven't ridden a motorcycle or am at all knowledgeable so I can't list any such reasons off the top of my head. Ask the Harley-Davidson forums?

As for the second statement, I don't know the physics behind motorcycle helmets but that seems completely false to me. What kind of person designs a helmet that transfers the kinetic energy from the impact from the collision from the toughened skull to the extremely fragile neck? The point of any helmet is to dissipate the kinetic energy among the frame of the helmet so that the impact doesn't generate enough energy to crack or fracture the skull. So I call that last statement into question.

And if we apply your train of thought the government ought to be able to greatly regulate what we can and can't do to ensure our safety, since apparently the feelings of others hold greater control over what we are allowed to do then ourselves.

Finally, if seatbelts are so important, why don't US school buses have them?

Here is the point I am really trying to make underneath all this CR. There are times when the outcome of one train of thought is better then another and many times (most actually) where it is not an either/or situation. You are setting the argument and reality to be a false dichotomy of either we enact policies to promote freedom or we promote policies to promote safety. The fact is that, yes, the train of thought that you and Fisherkind have been putting out are valid for situations where there truly is a strong consequence stemming from safety policies violating civil liberties. Telling people to please put the strap on before you drive a two ton car 60mph on the freeway is not one of those situations. Life is not black or white and we need to compromise on the little things when it can help to a big extent like having people wear seatbelts. It's not a slippery slope when all participants recognize that adhering to one train of thought for one situation doesn't mean we must use the same train of thought for all situations.

As for the school buses. Oh man, I don't even know I wish they did. I hated the bus so much, everyone getting out of their seat and ******* around. And then I get yelled at for having my fingers (not even my entire hand) outside the window (resting on the window itself).

Look at NYC mayor Bloomberg's campaign against delicious food. It started with trans fat and now he's trying to curtail the use of salt. And that's even though the negative health effects of salt are nowhere near as real as the risks of motorcycles.

I would call that also into question. The daily intake of salt if I remember correctly should only be about 6 grams of salt. Now obviously everyone takes in waaaaay more then that. Excessive salt has been shown to be contributing to strokes, high blood pressure and heart disease. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention the leading causes of death in the US are:

• Heart disease: 616,067
• Cancer: 562,875
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706
• Alzheimer's disease: 74,632
• Diabetes: 71,382
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 52,717
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 46,448
• Septicemia: 34,828

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

So I would actually say the negative effects of salt (or at least unhealthy food in general) are on par or higher then motorcycles.

To be honest, if we were to be arguing about the bans in food due to being unhealthy I would liken it if government banned contractors from making pipes out of lead due to the negative impact that can have on the public. I don't think most people would be unhappy if that measure was taken (as far as I know, that could actually be a real law).