Freedom at a cost

I found an article on the CNN website about a deadly bike accident. Ironically, the biker involved was participating to a rally to protest mandatory helmet law. Needless to say the biker wasn't wearing a helmet.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/07/04/new.york.motorcyclist.death/index.html

Now, I'm not a safety fanatic, but for me, wearing a helmet just makes sense. I mean, would you weld without a welding mask or cross a busy road without looking first? It's just common sense.
I think that people in the US and many other counties are so oppressed by laws and regulations, that they desperately try to fight back any further intrusion to their freedom of choice, even if their choice is an irrational one. 


How about Thailand, the "Land of the Free"? There is indeed much more freedom here and I never felt like I was living in a police state, unlike my home country Italy.
Wearing helmets has become law just a few years back, but there are still many who ride without. Why? Definitely not for the same reasons the Americans have. Here it's either laziness or maybe it's because they are Buddhists, so they have a "whatever-I'll be luckier in my next life" attitude. I see it everyday: young students leaving school on their little rockets, 2 sometimes 3 on a bike, all of them without helmets, racing each other in front of the traffic police. And the police doesn't care...
Ok, I have to stop here before I get all worked up :-)