Why America Needs to be a Nanny-State

America is entering a time where a nanny-state is absolutely necessary to ensure public safety. A nanny-state is "government perceived as having excessive interest in or control over the welfare of its citizens, especially in the enforcement of extensive public health and safety regulations." (Source)What this boils down to is that a nanny-state is when the government assumes the roll of "protector" of its citizens, and does everything possible to ensure that the decisions that those citizens make are good decisions. They do this by making actions or products thought to be harmful unavailable to the public.

Many people see this kind of government power as a malignant path because it takes away the freedom to choose, a right which is, especially in the United States of America, very empowering. Other skeptics believe that, given the power over decisions of the people, government officials would abuse this power for their own financial and political gain. While these are valid arguments, there are many other people who believe that the good of every person in their society outweighs the idealism of freedom of choice.

Most people who support a nanny-state type of government do so to eliminate natural selection among their peers. Natural selection, in the scientific world, is basically the survival of the fittest. Those best suited to survive in a given environment will survive, while those less suited will not thrive. The same could be said about people in the modern world. While people do not typically develop random appendages or abilities to make survival easier, there are some individuals which, without help from society, would not thrive in their environment.

This does not necessarily mean that developmentally disabled individuals, or those who were born with or developed a handicap during their lifetime should be left for natural selection to take. Many of people that we consider "disabled" create their own methods and adaptations to doing things so that they can survive with little or no aid from others. Where elimination of natural selection comes in with a nanny-state, is the protection of the decision-making challenged.

Almost everyone has made bad decisions at one point or another. Sometimes the result can be catastrophic, and sometimes it may be much less dramatic, however a nanny-state is one in which the bad decisions are not made available in an effort to prevent someone from making a mistake. Instead of learning not to touch a hot stove, a nanny-state will take the stove out of the house and put it in a locked bomb shelter to ensure that no one even thinks about touching it.

America is already well into an era of shifting responsibility. It is no longer the fault of the individual when a lapse of judgement occurs. Instead, society takes the blame for making the situation accessible in the first place. Some of the most famous examples of this come from what are called frivolous lawsuits.

Perhaps the most recognizable example of this is the case in which a woman sued a local McDonald's because she was burnt by a coffee that she had bought at the restaurant. The woman had been holding the coffee cup between her legs and took the top off of the cup, which allowed the hot coffee to spill in her lap, causing severe burns. She successfully sued McDonald's and was awarded over $600,000 in damages (the original damages were $2.7 million suggested by the jury, however the judge lowered this number).This is an example of the blame being shifted from the individual, who, despite knowing that the coffee was hot, took the lid off of the cup which resulted in her burns. Instead, the company was found liable for her injuries because the coffee was just too hot to be safe in the hands of customers.

There are countless examples of lawsuits such as this, where personal blame is shifted to a third party. The lesson that is being taught from these actions, especially those lawsuits in which parents are suing on their child's behalf claiming that the child's bad behavior or bad grades are not the child's fault, is that when something goes wrong, the best thing to do is to blame someone else. An entire generation of Americans has grown up with warning labels, precautionary tales, and an entire society looking over their shoulder to make sure they do not have the possibility of making one wrong decision. Inevitably, situations will occur in which bad decisions are available to be made, and if the child should make the wrong choice, it is not their fault, but society's fault for not paying close enough attention.

No parent wants to believe that their child is not a straight-A student, or that they have gotten into harmful habits. They especially do not want to think that their child's bad behavior is somehow their fault. Because of this, children are learning that anything bad that happens to them is someone else's fault. Responsibility is a thing of the past.

In order to deal with this shift of responsibility, and to protect themselves from consequences, many communities have taken extreme precautions to make sure that nothing bad can happen to people while in or around their facilities or under their care. Again, this is evident in the strange warning labels, signs, and fail-safe procedures that have entwined themselves into everyday life in America.

Despite every precaution, sometimes bad things still happen. When they do, even more precautions are taken, even more decisions are removed from the table. This cycle, is the reason that America is becoming a nanny-state, and also why it must continue to do so if we as a society are to ensure the elimination of natural selection.

Preserving freedom of choice takes some careful thought and consideration. The problem is, that giving every person the freedom of choice means giving stupid people the right to do stupid things and forcing them to take responsibility for the outcomes. Can we as a society save everyone from themselves? As demonstrated above, not everyone can be saved, even with the growing number of safety precautions that are taken.

"But what about the children?!"

This is the first thing people hear when they suggest allowing people to learn from their own mistakes. Not only does it make it so that the children of America need to develop some sort of common sense, but it does pose the risk that children will have to endure the mistakes of their parents. While freedom of choice is not always ideal for every single person in the country (especially the common-sense-challenged), it is better than having an entire nation full of people who do not think, act, or take responsibility for themselves.

Finding a balance between safety and freedom is difficult, especially when an opportunistic society is waiting to blame a third party for their problems. Sometimes it is hard for us to watch someone we love make mistakes and deal with the consequences, however, if we are to avoid becoming the nanny-state that we are already well into developing, we need to start making ourselves accountable for our own actions. We need to grow up and accept the responsibility that is required to keep a free society free.

Until we do this, the only way to keep everyone alive and well in this country is to keep allowing ourselves to be nannied by everyone else.