ah, you miss the point! there are a number of us ordinary citizens who have an ambition for power and money. the government is made up of such people. very few of them are those who truly desire change and even if they do, the rest of them will not allow it to happen.

when the government says that it wants to improve a certain section of society, then what it is really saying is that it just wants to appease them. the appeasement is always financial.

if more helmets need to be sold and helmet manufacturers want to make money, then they will be appeased.

you bring up an interesting comparison with seat belts. today, non smokers decide that smoking should be banned in public places. the reality is that vehicular pollution is worse than smoking for any human being. will they ban vehicles? i don't think they ever will because their campaign contributions are from the automobile lobby.

governments use appeasement as a divide and conquer strategy