One thing I’ve noticed in Pakistan is how physically risk-tolerant people are, willing to stand on high platforms, walk around open sinkholes and wet floors without making a fuss, etc. Much of it seems sensible, although it has the obvious dark side when it comes to no seatbelts in taxis, nobody wearing bike helmets, and people riding motorcycles with three-year-old children on their laps. A lot of that probably has to do with poverty, but I also feel acutely the lack of a lawsuit culture here, even more so than in Europe.
The comparison underscores how forcefully questions of legal liability are imprinted in the mind of Americans from a very young age, and how these questions percolate into our subconscious processing of physical risk. Our personal assessment of “is this dangerous?” has blurred subtly with the question “Could a plaintiff recover if this went wrong?”, even in situations where there would be no one to sue. I remember being told many times as a young child that I had to Get Down From There because somebody might get sued. What a strange way to explain danger to a child! What a dangerous way to conceptualize danger!
