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General increase in risk aversion. Same reason there are seat belt laws, helmet laws, firecrackers are illegal, you have to take your shoes off to get on a plan
by WillPostForFood 9y ago
General increase in risk aversion. Same reason there are seat belt laws, helmet laws, firecrackers are illegal, you have to take your shoes off to get on a plane, lawn darts are banned, and people fear second hand smoke. To tie it back to the parent comment, there is data that shows more individualistic people take more risks, so perhaps it is tied to the decline of individualism, and religion. Regarding kids specifically, people use to have more, so they would learn that they are pretty durable after raising a few. When you only have one, all your eggs are in one basket, so there is a greater tendency to overprotect.
- galfarragem 9y agoDoesn't your explanation corroborate the parent comment? Individualism and traditional families are more correlated with right-wing policies.
- WillPostForFood 9y agoParent, or parent-parent? I'd put "safety" laws on the left side of the political spectrum, so decline in individualism & religion would correlate to more safety laws.
- mathw 9y agoAren't individualism and religion opposing philosophies? Most religions demand conformity.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- WillPostForFood 9y agoConformity and individualism aren't exactly the same, though there is clearly overlap. Religious people might conform more in terms of things like dress, but at the same time be more open to individual rights. Go back to Declaration of Independence and the idea mean are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." It's not a coincidence that Communism is an atheistic political philosophy.