BrianGarst.com

The latest in big government nannyism comes from the west coast (Hat-tip: Reason):

People who hope to beat the summer heat by swimming, floating or boating on rivers in King County must wear a life vest or face an $86 fine.

A divided County Council on Monday passed a personal flotation device ordinance by a five to four vote. Opponents said it was an intrusive move by “big government.”

“This council sometimes thinks it’s everybody’s mom,” said Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, who voted “no.”

…Councilwoman Julia Patterson, a “yes” vote, said the same arguments Dunn made against the life vest ordinance were also made against laws requiring child safety seats in automobiles and banning smoking in public places.

“We are improving the health for everyone because of these laws that we pass,” she said.

Life is full of risk. There’s no such thing as a risk-free activity, and every choice involves a trade-off, which only the individual involved is properly positioned to evaluate, because benefits are subjective. Some people are willing to jump out of a plane for the thrill of it, risking that their equipment might malfunction and they die. Some people would never do that, and don’t find it fun at all anyway, regardless of the level of risk. Who is to decide that one of those cost-benefit analyses is correct, while the other is not? When it comes down to it, there’s no reason beyond busybody nannyism for why a third party (government) can assert that their chosen level of acceptable risk should override individual preferences.

So long as this kind of reasoning is permitted, that government exists to protect people from their own choices, these nannies will never stop. There will always be some new miniscule risk for them to foolishly try to eliminate. But while they will never win the battle of trying to turn us all into bubble boys, we will invariably lose our liberty.