Is stopping at a red light an infringement upon individual rights? What if one really, really wants to zoom right through the intersection, regardless of the crimson beacon telling him not to? Do mandatory speed limits infringe upon individual rights? Shouldn’t Joe Schmoe be allowed to careen through a school zone at 65mph if he wants to? No? Why not? Personal safety? Perhaps Joe Schmoe really doesn’t care about his own personal safety. Is it the government’s right to force him to care? I mean, if he wants to risk his life, shouldn’t be he allowed? If he wants to walk down the center line of the freeway, amidst heavy traffic, the man ought to have the freedom to do so, yes?
No.
No to it all.
You see, laws are put into practice to protect not only the individual, but also the people surrounding that individual. If you get right down to it, every law is an infringement upon individual rights, because they force a behavior that a person may not wish upon themselves. Some people don’t like paying for jewelry, some don’t feel they should have to pay rent. Others don’t particularly see a problem with bashing their neighbor’s head against a wall if they play music a little too loud, a little too early. The only things that stop these people from acting in such ways are laws.
Granted, the seat belt laws that are currently in effect are not perfect. Not even close. They were put into effect for the wrong reason: money. Those mandatory speed limit laws have been proving a trifle too effective, and local governments weren’t bringing in profit from traffic violations. Public servants were losing jobs, because things were running a bit too smoothly out on the highways. The easiest way to solve these two problems was to create a new law. Since it takes a while for the public to start instinctively abiding by laws, there’s a guarantee of tremendous profit in the law’s early days. The problem with this, however, is that in order to maintain those profits, some exceptions to the rules had to be made. School buses weren’t required to install seat belts for every child. Public transportation vehicles haven’t been forced to implement seat belt rules for their passengers. Why? Because that would cost money, and wasn’t the whole point to increase a city’s coffers, as opposed to depleting them?
The rub is, just because a law was not created for the right reasons, and just because there are kinks in the system to be worked out, does not make for a bad law. We in America have so many freedoms attributed to our basic human rights, that we immediately dig in our heels the moment something pops up that will force a submissive behavior, regardless of how reasonable it is. People tend to forget that not everyone is sensible. Not everyone will do something just because they should. If they would, we would have no need for any laws, period. Law-making is not always about “protecting those who cannot protect themselves.” Sometimes, it centers around protecting those who WILL NOT protect themselves.
published @ Helium.com
