Law, Business and Society 11th Edition by Tony McAdams

Exercise 53

We often count on government rules to shelter us from dangers with which the market seems ill-suited to deal. Hence, we created the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect us from dangerous food, drugs, and medical devices (see Chapter 15). But some-times rules do harm. Indeed, safety may not always be in our best interest. Some critics argue that boys, in particular, need a certain amount of danger in their lives. Brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden wrote The Dangerous Book for Boys as a manual of activities for boys. Their book describes how to make a bow and arrow, hunt and cook a rabbit, build a tree house, set a trip wire, and so on. They believe our "safety culture" has gone a bit too far. They point to that bygone era when every boy bad a jackknife. They believe that taking risks is important to a boy's joy and maturation.
How about girls [See Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, The Daring Book for Girls. For an online discussion about giving children greater freedom, see http://freerangekids.workpress.com]