After years of trying, the U.S. government may mandate safer table saws

Re:After years of trying, the U.S. government may mandate sa... by bee_rider on Tuesday April 09, 2024 @06:26PM (#39985001)

I don’t think that’s why we mandated seatbelts. I don’t see any particular reason to believe either way, that seatbelts save money or cost it—if people die quickly they don’t cost the medical system much at all.

I think we mandated seatbelts because they prevent tragic deaths and cost almost nothing to manufacture. Sometimes we actually do impose on people’s liberty in the interest of preventing them from doing something stupid, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.

I mean, if we did look up the data and found that they actually do end up costing more, would you be in favor of banning seatbelts? I certainly wouldn’t!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:After years of trying, the U.S. government may mandate sa... by cqqxo4zV46cp on Tuesday April 09, 2024 @06:45PM (#39985144)

This is a hilarious example of Hacker News tech bro style libertarianism, right down to the part where you think that you can just use your intuition as a substitute for knowing literally anything about car safety. Outside of ridiculous dumb money VC-funded startups, you can’t actually parachute into an industry and just make shit up.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:After years of trying, the U.S. government may mandate sa... by bee_rider on Tuesday April 09, 2024 @06:47PM (#39985157)

What is? My post?

Double check it, I haven’t claimed to have any evidence, and I’m saying that the life-saving aspect is sufficient to mandate seatbelts.

[ Parent | on HN ]