Should the government keep us safe?

This is a very interesting article out of Canada about government intervention in our private activities. See If we only endanger ourselves, should government intervene?

The base of the article is the government should intervene to keep us from hurting third parties. But what right does the government have to protect us from ourselves?

The article is based proposed new rules for using ATV’s (All Terrain Vehicles). The proposed rules require the use of a helmet by ATV riders.

There are lots of arguments on both sides of this issue. Some of my favorite have to do with a little Darwinian clean up of the gene pool and the need for more organ donors.

But the real issue is freedom to experience our lives the way we want to live them.

The article also argues that the law is not going to make a difference. A law is not going to make someone do something they do not want to do. Proof of this argument is the current US prison system. If laws really did work, prisons would be empty or only holding first time offenders.

An even better argument is the following:

The article correctly looks at the loss of the greater freedom. What is more important to protect the freedom to choose to not wear a helmet or the constitutionally protected freedom to be free from unreasonable searches?

A great, well written and well thought out article on the issues of the government coming into our lives to tell us to be safer.