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It's funny because I read the parent comment and thought that was actually kinda cool.

Lots of things we do are really stupid from a purely productivity, health or safety perspective.

American's were probably wrong to oppose alcohol prohibition. They probably should ban motorbikes. Fireworks should be largely banned to members of the public. Pizza should be illegal. Etc..

Part of what makes a country a place you'd want to live is the fact they don't create an excess of rules and regulations to optimise for what's best on paper, but allow people to do stupid things and allow them to live the life they want to live and take the risks they want to take where risks are not too excessive.

Commercial fireworks are dangerous, but not that dangerous. It's inadvisable that someone would use them without proper safety training, and it probably makes sense to have some rules around selling them to try to limit use, but in reality this just isn't a big problem.

Obviously people who live on flight paths should be more careful.



Rules come from lawsuits.

When you can get sued, safety fences get put up, quite quickly.

America has very aggressive lawyers. We live in a country, where being stupid, can be financially rewarding.


The threat of getting sued only motivates people with something to lose. If we let lawsuits largely drive what the rules are, how do you govern people who are so poor they are "judgement-proof."


True, but this is how it actually works, in the US.

Lots of stuff is not anywhere close to ideal, but it is what it is.

people refusing to understand that, doesn't help. Change usually comes from people who first, understand and accept, then they know what to do, to actually make change, as opposed to tilting at windmills.




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