"But try living among the underclass for a little while. They need a hell of a lot more authority in their lives than you do." That is unbelievably condescendi

"But try living among the underclass for a little while. They need a hell of a lot more authority in their lives than you do." That is unbelievably condescending. Sure, there are plenty of people who repeatedly make bad decisions. How on earth is the solution to force them to do the right thing by threatening imprisonment? When that fails, how is imprisonment better than the harm they were causing themselves? What happens when you're wrong about what is right for those poor, incompetent people? Advise people all you want, but if you want to force people to do things because you think it's better for them, that makes you a Bad Person. Governments are supposed to protect freedom, so if you find yourself suggesting restricting the freedom of people in order to protect them from themselves, you've probably made a logical error somewhere.