[audioengr]

The average Chinese is concerned with jobs, education for their kids, and healthcare, all of which are largely controlled by the government... and they really don't care about"personal freedom" unless the government behaves egregiously.   They will dominate the world in 25 years.

You will notice that Hong Kong is #2 on the list and they do care about individual freedoms as demonstrated by this weeks protests.

[S Clark]

You will notice that Hong Kong is #2 on the list and they do care about individual freedoms as demonstrated by this weeks protests.

Absolutely they are concerned about their freedoms, and with darn good reason.  But that doesn't take anything away from the juggernaut that is China.  Absorbing Hong Kong, although a high Chinese priority, might be more headache than it's worth for them. 

[Elizabeth]

I regret this thread has moved from writing about car seat belt use to far far afield.
I am not sure how a seat belt is connected to China's internal policies... 

[S Clark]

It's just what happens when people discuss stuff.  At least it's amicable...unlike cable wars. 
Back to the topic at hand.  A victim of a crash is still a victim, but I agree that not wearing seat belts is like contributory negligence. 

[WGH]

If you get a serious injury because you didn't wear a seat belt you can move to Tucson and hang with these guys:

In a homeless camp, just below The Mile, a guy named Shane sits inside his pup tent and rolls back his shorts to reveal scars girdling his thigh. Fleshy and jagged like a shark bite. He is damn lucky the leg is attached at all.
"Something went through me," he says, running fingers over the ruddy mutilations. "Whatever it was threw me 50 feet. I have no idea why I am alive."

https://www.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/tucson-salvage/Content?oid=25157232

Brian Smith is an award winning writer who chronicles the individualists, the artists who go their own way, and the down and out who live in and around Tucson, AZ.
Brian has a new book with a collection of articles he has written for the Tucson Weekly "Tucson Salvage: Tales and Recollections from La Frontera"
https://www.amazon.com/Tucson-Salvage-Tales-Recollections-Frontera/dp/191247719X

[S Clark]

That's some powerful reading.  There, but for the grace of God, go I.

[WGH]

Brian Smith's stories are reminiscent of the oral histories Chicago writer Studs Terkel wrote and talked about for almost two decades starting in 1970.

A current article in the NY Times about seat belts:

The Safest Place in a Car Crash Isn’t the Back Seat Anymore
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/business/seatbelts-back-seat-safety.html

[Crimson]

Seatbelts and helmets without the politics, please.

Thanks.

[glynnw]

Getting a little bit back on topic, a surgeon I know commented on how airbags had drastically cut down on the lower body trauma he used to see.  I always wear my seatbelt, but this surgeon operated on my wrist after I fell off the darn road while walking for my health.  Perhaps some kind of walker's airbag is called for