Ken Hornstein wrote:

It seems people are a lot more scared of things in general than
they used to be.

I think it's cultural, but I cannot quite point out what's been causing the
drift. I know that we in the US take care at a level that is quite out of
place in many other places in the world.

There was this restaurant in Bali, for example, which had open fish tanks in
the floor. The uncareful could walk right into one (as a friend did {8^).
I cannot picture that in the US.

Admittedly, that's likely an artifact of our litigious society. But look at
school buses and seat belts for another example. Hmm...that too could be a
liability issue.

Well, what about certification requirements for aircraft? Collision lights,
shoulder belts, etc. were requirements added only relatively recently.

Fire detectors: as a kid, my homes never had anything of the sort. Now,
they're everywhere I look.

I'm not saying that the extra layers of protection we're adding are bad.
But perhaps there's something else coming along with that: an idea that we
can control the world enough to achieve the mythical concept of "Perfect
Safety".

- Andrew