Exchanging Freedom for Profit

One of the things that has historically made the United States great is the freedom that its citizens were allowed. This would sometimes even include the freedom to act with stupidity. The government never told pioneers that they couldn't travel west because it was too dangerous (although they did sometimes restrict movement based on Indian rights). US citizens built skyscrapers and went into mines before all the safety gear that we have today was invented. Today, the government often tries to take away our freedoms when it thinks that it is for our own good. It has been regulating what kind of food that we can eat, whether we can choose whether or not to wear seat belts, and whether or not our kids are allowed to get a toy with a fast food meal. One of the more recent attempts to take away our freedoms involves the table saw. If one man gets his way, he will become rich by taking away yet another one of our freedoms.

The Amazing SawStop Invention

One man, Stephen Gass, invented an amazing invention that is at the heart of this erosion of freedom: the SawStop. About 4,000 people lose the tips of their fingers or other body parts every year due to accidents involving table saws. SawStop uses a small electric current to detect when a body part has gotten a little too close to the saw, but will still saw through wood like it is supposed to. Nobody is disputing that this isn't an excellent invention: who wouldn't want to use a saw that could potentially save their fingers, hand, or arm?

Trading Freedom for Safety

While there is nothing wrong with the SawStop, the problem lies in the fact that Gass is trying to use the law to force saw makers to use his invention. Instead of trying to convince the American public that saws using his invention are far superior to regular saws, and letting the free market turn towards these safer saws, he is trying to convince the government to pass a law that would force saw manufacturers to include this safety measure, or something like it, in all saws that are sold. Since Gass is a patent lawyer and owns the patent to this invention, it is almost certain that he would enforce the patent on his invention, and alternative measures are unlikely to be available. Adding this safety measure would increase the cost of these saws by about $100. Today, you can buy an inexpensive table saw for less than $100.

The government is not there to protect us from every single problem that we might encounter in life. We should have the freedom to take risks. Life is risky. While it is great that there is an invention out there that can prevent people from injuring themselves, we should be able to decide for ourselves whether we want it or not. There would probably be plenty of people out there that would choose to buy a saw with SawStop because they think that it's a great idea. There may be some people out there that need to do a small do-it-yourself project that can't afford the extra expense and are willing to take the risk. They should be allowed to make that choice.

Source: Plungis, Jeff. "A Fight Over Finger-Friendly Table Saws". Bloomberg Businessweek, 13 June 2011-19 June 2011, pp. 32-33.