People will make bad choices at scale

This is an attempted illustration that People will make bad choices at scale.

“If you allow shops that sell otherwise banned products, some poor, honest, poorly educated mother of five kids is going to buy something that kills her. This is a prediction about a factual consequence, and as a factual question it appears rather straightforward—a sane person should readily confess this to be true regardless of which stance they take on the policy issue. You may also think that making things illegal just makes them more expensive, that regulators will abuse their power, or that her individual freedom trumps your desire to meddle with her life. But, as a matter of simple fact, she’s still going to die.” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)

An illustrative example of People will make bad choices at scale and The Bad Button

Because People will make bad choices at scale, it is more important to limit the choices they can make rather than blame them for those choices.

“If you allow shops that sell otherwise banned products, some poor, honest, poorly educated mother of five kids is going to buy something that kills her. This is a prediction about a factual consequence, and as a factual question it appears rather straightforward—a sane person should readily confess this to be true regardless of which stance they take on the policy issue. You may also think that making things illegal just makes them more expensive, that regulators will abuse their power, or that her individual freedom trumps your desire to meddle with her life. But, as a matter of simple fact, she’s still going to die.” (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality)

An illustrative example of People will make bad choices at scale and The Bad Button