Conman, I understand your POV, and I agree.
The only thing is, is that many times, the term, "common sense" can be a misnomer.
Simply because, most of our "common sense" is derived from personal experience. Not to mention, "wisdom" that can be gleaned from another persons misfortune.
So, when it comes to some individuals, in order to protect them, they may be forced to to so, by enacting a law.. Too bad these same individuals makes it a burden on those who has "Common Sense".
When you look at the statistics at the amount of fatalities that has declined, right after the wearing of seat-belts were made into law. Those numbers don't lie. Yes, the introduction of airbags are helping greatly.
Some people require a smack in the face to know it hurts.. Some, can see others get smacked, to know it hurts.
But that's just it, its not that she doesn't know helmets save lives, its that she decided to take a risk and paid the price for it, which frankly I don't have a problem with.
As I said I think its great that the govt puts out facts and figures about helmets/seatbelts/smoking/etc so that people can make an informed decision.
You don't like helmets 'cause they aren't cool? Fine. You want to eat Mcds every day? Go for it, but the ensuing brain damage/heart attack aren't a result of being uninformed, they're the result of someone deciding its worth it.
And as you said, some things, like the dangers of smoking, aren't intuitive, but that's where the govt should, and did, play its part and say "hey, this is what could happen if you decide to do this, so fair warning, what you're doing is dangerous".
Like i said before, IMO the govt should only offer advise to people, rather than protect them from themselves. Making informed decisions is a crucial thing to be able to do and I think that that should be left to the individual, so that a trend isn't set that puts more ridiculous laws into effect, like Bloomberg's law preventing the sale of 2 liters with meals (or whatever the deal is with that no-big-sugary-drinks-law). That goes back to what you said about people becoming a burden.
Just because some people don't have self control and shirk the blame to the 2 liter rather than accepting that they need to decide to eat healthier doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to have a kiddie pool full of soda with my pizza if I want.
The seatbelt law is less of an issue for me because there arent really any down sides (aside from that lost 3 sec haha), but the problem is that that law and the soda law follow the same thought process of "the public isn't responsible enough to make this decision, so we must mandate/ban/outlaw this for their own good".
I think if people adopted the mentality of "bummer... guess you shouldn't do that any more huh", rather than assuming their burden/problems (cough... obesity as a disability... cough) then we'd be hearing a lot less about the laws previously mentioned.