Car Seat Anxiety
Right, I’m going to go a bit polemical and a tad over the top but I’ve been
driven to it. The car seat industry thrives on parental fear, and I believe much of that fear
is misplaced and deliberately manufactured. With a better treatment of
risk, I think we could help parents worry less, and have more children.
Background
There’s a really famous paper (Car Seats as Contraception) in this space which basically shows that the
creep of car seat legislation has led to a reduction in the probability of having a third child in America, just because the average American car can’t fit 3
car seats in the back. So people postpone, or in some cases, don’t have a third
child because it’d require a new car. It’s a funny look at incentives and
unintended consequences. Well, funny if you don’t think...
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