obey your signal only

I was in college in Chicago in the early 90's.  A common sign post I saw at intersections said "obey your signal only."  I've thought of that sign frequently ever since.  I think it represents everything that sucks about our society.  Screwdrivers need labeling stating: "do not poke into eye."  I'm not sure which is worse, that there are actually people stupid enough to think "well, the light from the intersecting direction was green, so I figured I could go," or that some bureaucrat figured that there are people out there who need warning against that sort of reasoning.  Either way, this sign represents the loss of common sense in society that yields increasing litigation, increasing reliance on the government to protect us from our own bad decisions, and less personal drive and responsibility.  I think this development has been an insidious evolution stemming from a variety of factors, including (ironically) an increasingly paternalistic government which thinks, or at least acts as if its job is to save us from all forms of human suffering regardless of cost or imposition on personal liberty.  In the last 20 years, fewer than ten children under the age of two have died from over the counter decongestants administered by parents for cold symptoms.  FDA response?  Pull them off the shelves.  Hundreds of millions of dosages administered with ten dead children.  Don't get me wrong:  dead children are sad all the way around and nothing can assuage a parent grieving a dead child.  But how many parents and children now suffer sleepless nights due to a child's stuffy nose and earache?  Monkey bars are being pulled from playgrounds and schoolyards across the country because kids get hurt on them.  Know what happens to children who never suffer physical injury as they grow up?  They are worthless decision-makers.  They never learn that mistakes hurt.  Burning one's hand on the hot stove is a great motivator to learning to stay away from hot stoves.  It teaches us to think ahead, to avoid getting facial piercings and tatoos in order to maintain basic employability.  To consider using condoms to avoid getting easy abortions.  To apply oneself in high school to get into college.  There are so many "safety net" benefits available now that a life on the dole is a reasonable (I guess) alternative to getting a decent job.  Where am I going with this?  I don't know, exactly.  But what I see every day as an emergency physician makes me scratch my head, wonder how it is that there are so many who look to the system to see what they can get (what they deserve, damnit!), rather than trying to figure out a way to get it on their own.  Take a look at our government finances and it seems we are reaching that tipping point where what we provide to our citizenry is exceeding what can be taken from those who generate wealth to redistribute to others.