Just about everyone has some kind of issue with the "nanny state" that tells them how to regulate their lives.

Perhaps the poster child for the struggle between individual freedoms and the nanny state is the matter of safety helmets for motorcycle riders.

While many riders do wear helmets and other protective gear in Hawai'i, it is not required by law for anyone older than 18. And many riders prefer the freedom and arguably better sensory abilities that come with riding without a helmet.

But that same freedom also comes with a price. Recent news stories out of Florida report a startling increase in deaths, injuries and related medical costs after that state repealed its mandatory helmet law. There is no free lunch. We all pay when injuries and deaths jump significantly.

In an ideal world, the freedom to ride without safety protection would come with an equal responsibility to deal individually with the costs of an accident. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

As long as society is obligated to deal with the costs and trauma of injuries, it has a right to push for a helmet law that would quite obviously ease that burden.

The next Legislature should take this equation into account and restore Hawai'i's mandatory helmet law.