Ottawa Citizen Column: Letter to a foolish politician
Date: Jun 2, 2006 7:40 AM
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2006.06.02
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PNAME: Editorial
PAGE: A14
COLUMN: John Robson
BYLINE: John Robson
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
WORD COUNT: 818

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Letter to a foolish politician

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To: The Hon. Michael Bryant, attorney general of Ontario

Dear Sir:

In a recent letter to my friend Dennis Young (reference #M06-01001) you
explain that you asked the federal government to impose a total handgun
ban because criminals may steal handguns from legitimate owners and, I
quote you here, “No hobby is worth a life.” I wonder if I might prevail
upon you not to babble in this fashion.

Surely you realize many more people drown in Ontario than are fatally
shot by criminals. And most drownings result from hobbies such as
swimming and boating or (says a Canadian Institute for Health
Information press release) “walking near water,” whereas many firearms
murders don’t involve collectors’ or sports shooters’ stolen weapons. If
you seriously believe “No hobby is worth a life,” consistency requires
that you seek a ban on these other recreational activities first. If
not, why did you say it?

Cynics might claim that, as a politician, you were simply seeking a
plausible formulation to seize the rhetorical high ground in defence of
a policy you hadn’t really thought through but it polled well and every
cool person you knew instinctively supported it. Not me. I charitably
grant that you are as confused as you sound. As Henry Hazlitt complained
60 years ago, government policy frequently lags behind Adam Smith.

So let me explain to you the concept of “tradeoffs.” In life, including
public policy, every course of action involves both benefits and costs.
If nothing else, a decision to spend time doing something we enjoy means
that same time cannot be spent doing something else we also enjoy. And
most pleasant activities, even golf, not only consume valuable time and
money but are also more risky than, say, cowering in our basements.
Forget skydiving or white-water rafting. Do you have any idea what might
happen if someone were hit in the head by a croquet ball? Or ran into a
tree chasing a Frisbee?

Before banning all such reckless pastimes because “No hobby is worth a
life,” you might need to chat about tradeoffs with your colleague Jim
Watson, the minister of health promotion. He may regard moderate
physical activity not just as a pleasant diversion for persons under the
care and supervision of the benevolent state, but also as useful in
reducing premature death due to being a big fat slob, thus saving the
public health system much lovely money. He may even mention the
“jogger’s dilemma” that while people who exercise tend to live longer,
at any given moment the risk of death is higher while working out than
not.

Possibly some state facility could be established at which low-risk
aerobics could be conducted in close proximity to advanced medical
equipment and far from lakes, ponds and other death traps. And there are
plenty of hobbies that look safe. Like stamp collecting, where lethal
paper cuts are rare. Or chess: Who ever choked on a rook? So it might
seem that a ban on any hobbies mathematically shown to increase
fatalities would not impose an undue burden of boredom on the good
people of Ontario.

Alas, it is not that simple. Do you have any idea how many car accidents
involve people travelling to and from chess clubs, yoga classes or
smoke-free social gatherings, as well as really scary things like
recreational softball where heart attacks, concussions and food
poisoning from the potato salad cannot be ruled out entirely? And forget
banning automobile travel for frivolous or alarming recreational
purposes. Pedestrians can be run over, succumb to heat exhaustion, be
stung by bees or otherwise perish on their way to art class. It’s an
abattoir out there.

Of course, if we take tradeoffs seriously, we might also have to ask Mr.
Watson whether high tobacco taxes, which undermine border security by
increasing smuggling, are worth the frisson of virtue from stamping out
the sin of smoking. For regrettably one tradeoff in thinking more
clearly about policy is realizing some cherished nostrums don’t work.
But a trade-off in avoiding clear thinking is doing and saying dumb
stuff. Trade-offs are everywhere … except in your letter.

Finally, stress is a significant factor in premature death. And the
modern world has reduced previously significant sources of anxiety, such
as frenzied Huns sweeping suddenly over the horizon, but has created
others, from the frantic pace of work to people driving while
cellphoning to politicians who meddle with law-abiding citizens because
they can’t control predatory thugs, then rationalize their conduct in
foolish ways.

Even if silly statements are a traditional politicians’ hobby, they are
bad for my blood pressure. And remember: No hobby is worth a life.

John Robson’s column appears weekly.

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THE CANDIAN LIFE AND HEALTH INSURANCE ASSOCIATION’S LIST OF THE RISKIEST
HOBBIES
“They said the following list is of rated activities is common to all
life insurers in both content and scope: parachuting/skydiving;
ballooning; hang gliding; flying ultra lights; motorcycle or automobile
racing; scuba diving; aviation; mountaineering; drug usage; tobacco
usage; and alcohol usage.”
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/breitkreuzgpress/guns79.htm