Hacker News Reader

Comment by eadmund | Hacker News Reader

One should wear a seat belt, of course. But that's not the question: the question is whether the State should punish those who do not wear seat belts. Given that they risk only their own lives (modulo the vanishingly-small number of folks injured or kill by bodies flung from crashes), I believe that the answer is unambigously no.

Wear a seatbelt. Don't fine and/or imprison those who do not.

View on HN

Where I come from, people did not have the habit of wearing seat belts, even though, at the time, it was proven to help in case of accidents. The media was all over it but people still not wore them. Government then decided to make it a law to wear it and those not wearing would be fined. The law was really enforced and, eventually, everyone was wearing it and it’s a no brainer today.

If not for the law and the fines, the behavior of not wearing it wouldn’t have changed or, if it did, it would take much longer.

Edit: typo

So the people shouldn't be allowed to choose to take that risk for themselves? Fuck free choice, we should coerce them into making the right one?

In that case I think enforcing it was necessary to break the status quo. If it should no longer be a law and let people decide is up to each one’s personal opinions. Myself, I think if someone wants to take risk and maybe get killed there are more efficient ways of doing it and in a way that wouldn’t potentially cause damage to others.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com