Especially when there isn’t clear harm being done to another person.
We have lots of laws to protect people from themselves and from the lies of corporations and such. Seatbelt and helmet laws are the most obvious. We can’t, as a society, expect people to be an expert on every subject. So people make laws to enforce certain actions to protect people from ignorance and misinformation. Hopefully these laws get passed after a lot of scientific evidence shows they are necessary and not political bigotry like cannabis bans and such.
That’s actually exactly my point. We should carefully examine whether the infringement is worth the benefit before blindly letting the government do whatever.
In the case of seatbelt laws, it is worth it because people are really bad at understanding inertia, and wearing a seatbelt isn’t a burden to anyone. In the case of raw milk, it’s worth it because tuberculosis is fucking horrifying and very contagious.
We have lots of laws to protect people from themselves and from the lies of corporations and such. Seatbelt and helmet laws are the most obvious. We can’t, as a society, expect people to be an expert on every subject. So people make laws to enforce certain actions to protect people from ignorance and misinformation. Hopefully these laws get passed after a lot of scientific evidence shows they are necessary and not political bigotry like cannabis bans and such.
That’s actually exactly my point. We should carefully examine whether the infringement is worth the benefit before blindly letting the government do whatever.
In the case of seatbelt laws, it is worth it because people are really bad at understanding inertia, and wearing a seatbelt isn’t a burden to anyone. In the case of raw milk, it’s worth it because tuberculosis is fucking horrifying and very contagious.