You need to ask yourself, however, are these new laws and regulations really the reason and not simply a more informed public. I wear my seatbelt. Don't give a shit about it being illegal if I don't, I just don't want to die or be brain damaged in a horrific motor vehicle accident. Same goes for air travel. Burning wreckage on CNN for a week straight isn't good for business. People tend to notice and ask questions.
That's really the only beef I have with progressive or leftist mentality. It assumes the American public is too stupid to make informed decisions on their own. I dunno, maybe a lot of folks are too stupid. All I know is that I'm not. I engage or have engaged in a lot of risky behavior, but I blame no one but myself.
Eating greasy, salty fast food 5 times a week isn't good for me? Who would have guessed.
Must be McDonald's fault for making me fat...
The sentiment is valid, the reality is far different.
Most of us wear our seatbelts. Most of us do so not because of the law that says we should but because we don't want to exit the vehicle through the winshield. However. before there were laws mandating seatbelts in every car, few of us would wear our belts and few of us would opt for the "saftey upgrades" when purchasing our vehicle. Why? not because we are a stupid people but because it is the nature of man to believe that bad things won't happen to us and because bad things don't happen to us (we are safer drivers, we are lucky, we have quick reactions), then why bother spending that extra money on those belts?
it was only when each car manufactured had seatbelts that we all took to wearing them regularly. Air bags have saved thousands of lives but even if there were provisions for an airbag equiped car, most would opt instead for the leatherette interior and the flashy 15 inch rims - that is just the way it is. I recall the old days before seatbelts and airbags, only a very few manufacturers even offered such expensive "conveniences". Those were not terribly popular cars. Now, of course, few would even think to buy a car without those 6 airbags but it was government intervention that changed the mentality of drivers. (and of course insurance companies - over the very long run)
So far as the assumption of the stupidity of the American public is concerned, there is a problem. What you may claim is "stupidity" I will call the bent of mankind. It is not necessarily stupidity but simply how we act in the face of PR, advertisements, ad campaigns and corporate managed culture. We are rarely aware of how we are manipulated but a portion of that very manipulation is that we are induced to believe that we have free will in matters of consumption.
We do not. Corporations spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the manipulation of individual wants/needs/wishes and desires. They would not spend this money if it was not effective.
There are companies that make their money in spotting trends and then vending this information to organizations that amplify and enhance those trends. Focus groups and polls give companies tremendous power over what it is we want and do, eat and wear, drive and purchase and it affects us all to one extent or another.
So, are we stupid? no, but we are the fattest people on earth. Are we fat because we are stupid? Or are companies very very good at creating foods that are difficult to resist and surrounding us with the temptation to eat that food?
Now, that being said, is it Mcdonald's fault for making us fat? that depends. If they spent one billion dollars getting us to try something that they designed to trigger our most primal desires for fat and sugar and salt, then it may be at least partly their fault for "making" us fat.
I know I know, it is hard for anyone to admit that they are not fully in control of themselves but this as well is at least in part the result of PR on a grand scale.
If Mcdonalds didn't make us fat, and we all know that eating too much crap is bad for us, and (as was recently discovered) excercise or the lack thereof has little to do with our ultimate body weight, then why are we more fat now than we ever were in U.S. history?