re: #87 cliffster

I just can’t understand you saying that. I’m sure you are very passionate about people not being told who to have sex with and how to have it. How can you justify your position that it’s ok to tell someone they have to wear a seatbelt? It just doesn’t make sense. And that’s what I mean - you are all about freedom, as long as it’s the freedoms that you want people to have. If you really think about it, you’ll see how hypocritical that position is.

Think about this - if you’re talking about the safety of the person upon whose personal sovereignty you are infringing, then I can talk about the safety of the person having sex. Multiple partners can expose you to STD’s that can harm or even kill you. There are plenty of arguments to be made from a health standpoint. Why is that not a good reason for regulators to tell you how to live your life in your bedroom? Because it’s not anyone’s prerogative, that’s why. It’s my life, my bedroom, stay out. That’s the way all these things should be approached.

The ethical argument in favor of seat belt laws is that the costs of that unsafe behavior are passed along to the greater society via health care and auto insurance costs, and that gives the larger society a right to intervene. More simply put, that isn’t a purely victimless behavior because we have to pay for its consequences.

How you behave when you drive a car is also a more generally regulated behavior: you need a license, you occupy public roads and have to operate the vehicle in accordance with various standards. Compare that with bedroom behavior and you get a meaningful distinction, I think.

But I agree that it is a close call.