what an awesome response! That is a post right there if you ask me. Wonderful analogies in there.

I recall talking to my father as a child and he planted the seeds of disdain for the government oversight. He was talking about how you can get a "farm use" tag for a vehicle and then there are zero rules about using it. In the small community where he was brought up people would register all sorts of vehicles as "farm use" including sports cars and because the community shared his disdain for government, nobody really cared. There was also farm use diesel that was dyed and as long as the people never left the community the police would never get them in trouble for having purple exhaust (the color indicating that you are using tax-free fuel) coming out of your vehicle.

Not all communities can come together like that though and this was a long time ago and has likely changed with the digital age.

While your tie-rod story is definitely a scary one, even in a situation like that one which is quite extreme should be up to me if I am going to put myself in a situation where something like that could happen. If my actions cause harm to other people or their property then I am liable. We can't attempt to prevent everything before it happens. Life isn't Minority Report although I think we are headed that direction.