For those who have friends or relatives or work with people who are handicapped due to head injuries please stop reading. I'm not attacking you or them but trying to make a point.
Personally I'm all for people not wearing their helmets. Or not wearing their seatbelts.
The only thing to balance out is if it's more expensive to have to help support a vegetative human (through my health insurance rates) or if the likelihood is greater that the person simply dies. Dying is much, much cheaper. It's probably easier on family and friends too, more closure, less decisions.
Either way, it's an excellent way of thinning out the species in this day and age.
The only time I don't like when people do stuff like this is when it affects me. Like blowing red lights or driving into a line of cars waiting for a light. If they smack into me, or almost smack into me, then I get a bit hissy.
The problem is that many people don't realize the consequences of their actions. Heck, I didn't realize the consequences of a lot of things I did. I was lucky and I could have easily been a body in a morgue. I feel lucky that I now have some inkling of what might happen if I do certain stupid or ignorant things. A kid (he was 21 or so) died around here recently, taking three of his friends with him. His car, on a 25 mph road (or was it a 35 mph road?), crashed with his tach jammed at 5500 rpm and his speedo at 140 mph. A few minutes before she died, one of his passengers texted that she was on such and such road "at 110". I don't think she mean the time of day. Did the driver fully comprehend what might happen if he lost control at such speeds? I honestly think he had no clue. It doesn't absolve him from blame but I could see how a young person with no serious "bad experiences" might think that bad things can't happen to him. I felt that way when I was his age. My guardian angel just worked overtime or something.
That's changed now. Because of the realization of the consequences of those prior escapades, I'm now risk averse in general. When I do something that could be construed as risky (sprinting with cars, crits, descending in a tuck, etc), it's a calculated risk, a low one, which I'm willing to accept. Helmetless riding is not one of them.
This may sound half sarcastic because that's exactly what it is. Half sarcastic. Although I believe that helmets are good, if someone insists on not wearing a helmet, I express my disapproval, my lack of knowledge when it comes to head injuries, and ride. I've given up trying to preach to the heathens (if helmet wearers are the choir). Seatbelts - I do insist people wear them in my car, I have more control over that.
cdr