Posted by
grad_1986 on Monday, July 12, 2010 3:59:03 PM
Imagine for a moment GM has just developed the World's Most Safest Car. So safe infact that they are willing to pay 10 Million dollars to the family of any person who dies in a car accident when driving this car.
How will it work? The car will detect milli-seconds before an impact that its about to be hit. It filll the space in side with air-bags deployed from every angle imaginable (bottom, top, left , right, front, back) thus totally immobilizing the passengers as the passenger compartment (made of a titanium alloy) allows no crushing damage to harm its inhabitents. The cost of one of these cars? 1 Million Dollars. (Hey you can't put a price on life or safety!). So who can afford this kind of luxury? Only the super-rich will be able to afford it of course. Now one may think that, "Ok, I guess if they can afford it so be it. It doesn't impact me though". But actually it DOES impact you (maybe even physically).
Imagine one of these cars being driven by the owners teenage son knowing that he is SUPER-SAFE on the road. Also imagine that this teenagers father is very well connected to the legal system and will make sure no financial or legal harm comes to his son. Will it change his driving habits? You-Betch-Ya it will. After all THEY are covered. But of course you the poor slob on the road that cannot afford one of these vehicles will NOT be so lucky as you will most likely not live thru an encounter with one of these vehicles.
The scenerio I have outlined is exactly the scenerio we have created for companies we have bailed-out over the past couple of years (Freddy and Fannie mostly). By bailing these people out we have given them a finanical-safe-car to drive recklously around and possibly injure other people with. Knowing "daddy" won't let any harm come "junior" and that they will not pay for any of their mistakes they will continue to drive-our-economy with recklous abandon and WE will be paying with our very lives for their decisions. We need to return this country back to the basic principle of "personal-responsbility". We need to tell Washington that we are not going to "share-the-road" anylonger with people who do not share the same level of concern for their safety as we do ours.