The Payor of Last Resort · Episode 3 of 12 · 15 min
Society Picks Him Up Off the Highway
In 1972 a federal court in Boston upheld a motorcycle helmet law with the argument that society picks the injured rider up off the highway and pays for the consequences. A footnote refused the broader claim of an interest in citizens' productivity, resting only on direct outlays. The episode weighs the savings figures and the philosophers' objection that the cost exists only because society chose to insure itself.
Who's who
- Joel FeinbergPhilosopher who argued public cost exists only because we chose to insure
- Peter de MarneffePhilosopher who pressed the objection into a reductio: stop paying
- Devin ChristensenScholar who argued cost framing encourages victim-blaming
- Lewis F. Powell Jr.+2 more episodesRetired Justice who restated the public-cost rationale in Picou v. Gillum
- Charles J. KahaneNHTSA analyst who tallied lives saved by vehicle safety technology
- Francis W. Sargent+1 more episodeMassachusetts governor named defendant in Simon v. Sargent
- Jonathan MorenoBioethicist who argued the economic ledger is the wrong frame
- Ronald BayerCo-author of the 1985 Hastings Center critique of cost arguments
Where it happens
- Boston, Massachusetts+11 more episodesWhere the three-judge court decided Simon v. Sargent in 1972
- California+30 more episodesRequires helmets for all motorcyclists but only minor cyclists
- Michigan+1 more episodeState whose 1968 ruling warned of unlimited paternalism
- Illinois+3 more episodesState whose 1969 ruling struck its helmet requirement
Timeline
- September 1966The Highway Safety Act makes federal highway money conditional on state programs.
- June 28, 1972Simon v. Sargent upholds the Massachusetts helmet law.
- 1975Congress removes the federal sanction, and about half the states repeal their universal laws.
- January 1, 1992California's universal motorcycle helmet requirement takes effect.
- June 15, 2012CDC reports helmet use saved $3 billion and 1,544 lives in 2010.
- January 2015NHTSA credits vehicle safety technologies with 613,501 lives saved from 1960 to 2012.
Still debated
No study quantifies the share of motorcycle-injury care paid from public funds, and the $3 billion CDC figure is a societal total dominated by lost productivity. The reductio of refusing to pay is a device rather than a proposal, and why no state requires adult bicycle helmets despite identical logic is unresolved.
Connected episodes in other series
The Revolt and the Half-Fix: San Francisco and BostonWho Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 19Also features Francis W. Sargent
The Great Reversal: PATCO and the Productivity-Pay SplitThe Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 9Also features Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Race and the RopeTo Die or Not to Die · Episode 5Also features Lewis F. Powell Jr.