This is in reply to Mary Krizan’s opinion in The State News (“Problems of safety belt law overlooked,” SN 1/19), which mistakenly tracked a racist plot behind the mandatory safety belt law and didn’t recognize the economic nature of the issue.

Public traffic holds risks and dangers because people cause accidents. Accidents cause injury. Injuries have to be treated by emergency services, which are largely paid for by tax dollars. Tax dollars come from all the people.

People are less likely to be injured when buckled up. People are likely to minimize injury when wearing a safety belt in case of an accident. Why do people like Krizan think I should pay more taxes just because some person forgot to buckle up and caused himself larger injury than he would have if he had worn his safety belt? Does a person deserve emergency services if that person did not prevent injury to himself, even though he could have done so by using a protective device? Is one person’s freedom more important than the economic balance of society as a whole?

It is your civil duty for the good of society as a whole to buckle up so we are limiting the amount of emergency services we need and use. This lowers the tax burden on the public as a whole.

I advise Krizan, as a pre-law student, to enroll this fall in the MSU course Economics 425, Law and Economics, which covers this subject.

Buckle up, everybody.

Marcel Kunath
computer science
graduate student