I have no problem with you driving without a seatbelt on, so long as you sign a waiver that says that if you do not have enough money in the bank and your insurances will not cover you, theother emergencny room staff must turn you down before providing you treatment at my expense. So long as I am effectively buying you implicit insurance I sure as hell want you to be careful. Feel free to buy your way out of that.

That is a strawman for decriminalizing drugs. When you don't wear a seatbelt, you risk others' financial harm. We deal with that largely without loss of other people's lives. When you mug people for cash at knife point to buy heroin, peole get physically hurt. You cannot possibly sign a waiver saying that you will not mug, steal, break-in, etc. if you decide to try heroin.

Mind you I am not arguing against decriminalization or legalization of drugs. Just saying that your argument is bogus.

Eh? First, I made no argument connecting seat belts and drugs. Perhaps you're just skipping around my comment, reassembling sentence fragments in an arbitrary order?

Second, given that most people have insurance, and that the ones who don't are free riding on emergency care for any injury, but yet you're saying that you would support deillegalization of non-seatbelt wearing if one were to sign a specific waiver (which the cartel of insurance companies would then prohibit you from signing anyway, no doubt), I don't believe your argument to be sincere. I can only infer that your real viewpoint is that universal mandatory seatbelt usage is a good thing, and you're just making yet another specious justification for dictating individuals' behavior.

FWIW, I've held up starting to drive for people who weren't putting a seat belt on, and I think it's pretty ridiculous to not wear one. I just don't think the government has any business mandating such behavior.

Correct, my viewpoint is that seatbelt laws are a good thing. Your insurance company will make you pay more for not wearing seatbelts. The math dictates it. I have no way to make you pay more (other than raising your taxes which you may or may not pay depending on your income). Thus my only recourse is to make you wear a seatbelt via a law that my representatives in the government impose and enforce. Do I have any business making you pay for not wearing a seatbelt (via fines or higher premiums)? Yes, so long as I am on the hook for your medical bills. The waiver I mention is fictional not only because we could never enforce it, but also because the medical staff admitting you takes an oath to treat you. However, my argument is that the waiver is the minimum requirement for the financial math to work out. Therefore seatbelt laws are in place for a reason, do more good than harm, and are absolutely in my right to demand of my government. In that sense my argument is absolutely sincere.

On top of the above, I spent many years in a country with a poor healthcare system and lax seatbelt laws. The results were not pretty.

Lastly, in your original post you seem to suggest a possibility that the government telling you to put on a seatbelt is somehow comparable to being a slave in the early days of this country. If that really was your suggestion, I am not sure how to respond to such misrepresentation of reality.