Thursday, February 14, 2008

Your tax dollars at work

The government is constantly spending my and your money to finance studies of things that could be figured out by a 5-year-old. The latest example I saw was a study by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission with the headline: "ATVs Deadly for Young Riders." Hmmmmm. The study found that in 2006, 555 people died across the nation in all-terrain vehicle accidents, and 100 of them were children. The agency's recommendations for kids: Stay off roads (you know, where there are cars). Wear a helmet. Kids should not ride on adult-sized ATVs. Don't put more than one person on a one-person ATV (There goes the Wallenda pyramid). Here's a quote from the report: "Collisions with cars and other vehicles ... can be deadly." Really!?!?! Did this really require the attention of a bloated bureaucracy? Any fool could tell you that when riding relatively unprotected on a fast-moving vehicle, it might be wise to put something on your noggin. Kids who don't wear, or aren't required to wear, helmets when riding ATVs, and aren't killed in the process, are the people who grow up to ride motorcycles without helmets on major roads and highways. I call them "future organ donors." And they don't have the common sense of the aforementioned 5-year-old. So maybe they do need the government's guidance.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Amanda Gillooly said...

Just a quick note on tax dollars going to silly studies: One of my high school English teachers told us about a government study that uncovered the most euphonic word in the English language. In case you're curious (which no one, seemingly, but that teacher, was) the word was umbrella.

February 14, 2008 at 7:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder how much the study cost the taxpayers. A high-school intern with a DSL connection could have rounded up a death toll for ATV users.

That reminds me of so-called "traffic studies" that are conducted every time they want to build a new strip mall. Let me take a stab at this one: More cars will be driving nearby is this is constructed. There, no one had to pay for that!

February 16, 2008 at 9:15 AM  
Blogger PRIguy said...

Maybe there should be a study done on what a waste of money these studies are.

February 17, 2008 at 10:20 AM  

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