There are lots of thing that are unnecessary, from riding horse’s to motorcycles, and skydiving,and Bungy cord jumping, let’s just ban them all.
The American Society for the toothless wants to ban Hockey.
Yes indeed, there are a lot of stupid, unnecessary human activities. Do you know that psychiatrists and clinical psychologists go to hospital wards to counsel the young men (and it’s almost always men—women have better sense) who have made paraplegics and quadriplegics of themselves riding on motorcycles? They are there to show these men how they are going to live their lives in either wheelchairs or beds for the next 40 to 50 years.
I think a strong case could be made to prohibit these and other dumb things people do. If it only impacted them and no one else, fine, knock your self out. But that’s not true. Their mistakes raise costs to non-participants in stupid activities; think medical costs—and hence higher taxes—that are borne by the general public because of what others do, exercising their “freedoms.
Mind you, I am as much for personal freedom as most people (I accent “most”). It is only when those freedom impinge on others that I have a problem.
These comments apply equally to other activities such as sky diving. I would exempt football and hockey if the organizations which sponsor them provided insurance for the players after they retire. But I’ll bet Medicare pays for them now.