Cruising towards Voluntaryism

A rare instance of government done right.

In the 1950s - 1960s, the motorcycle manufacturers Harley-Davidson and Indian Motorcycles were fiercely competing for market share in the USA. In order to "lock in" their respective customer bases, each brand configured its controls on the opposite side. Thus, one brand would rig the clutch and and brake on one side, whilst the competitor would configure them on the other. The manufacturers calculated that their respective customers would be leery of switching to the competitor since in an emergency played out in nanoseconds, bikers would default to muscular memory to slow down or speed up in avoidance of hazards.

The manufacturers' calculations were correct, of course. Many of those bikers who had switched brands suffered accidents and grievous injuries, including death. This was not like PC and MacIntosh flipping the mouse's click-buttons so that you misfile a digital folder; this was steel, glass and asphalt irreparably damaging human life so that two companies could make a buck.

Thus in 1972, the U.S. Department of Transportation passed Title 49 § 571.123, a regulation which standardized motorcycle controls. Just as every automobile/truck has its accelerator to the right of the brake, motorcyclists nowadays can expect a minimum of uniformity in the vehicle's controls. Now manufacturers have to compete on the virtue of their engineering, and not simply by dint of customers' habits.

Libertarian purists no doubt will balk at this rare praise for government, but this was an instance of a market intervention for the direct preservation of human life, which arguably is the whole point of government. Surely even my honest critics will concede that if government were confined strictly to such a role, we would be considerably closer to the Voluntaryist Society.

Adapted from a post of March 23rd, 2023, on Facebook.