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Comment by kleiba

21 days ago

I lived in Germany for a while. There, the water that comes out of your tab doesn't get fluorized. Instead, they add fluoride to tooth paste.

So, is Germany less free or more free?

10 comments

kleiba

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heavyset_go  21 days ago

> So, is Germany less free or more free?

Can communities choose to fluoridate their water at the utility level or are they banned from doing so by legislation like they are in Utah?

  • starspangled  21 days ago

    Can communities choose to permit murder or ban people of certain races? Is America not free because they cannot choose to vote for a government that would prohibit women from voting or jail people for expressing political opinions?

    You're using an extreme definition of freedom that I suspect is not quite the trump card you think it is. No, "communities" can't just do whatever they want because they "choose" to, and nobody ouside the lunatic fringe thinks that's a prerequisite for freedom.

hanspeter  21 days ago

While they don't add fluoride, the natural levels in German tap water can reach 0.3 mg/L. Compared to the US recommended level of 0.7 mg/L in fluoridated water, that's not an insignificant amount.

Xelynega  21 days ago

I think you missed the point of "positive" versus "negative" freedoms.

They have more of one, less of the other.

  • kleiba  21 days ago

    Sorry if you read my post as snarky - I don't think I missed that point, I meant the question at the end more as food for thought.

    The OP contrasts adding fluroide to water vs. not adding fluoride to water and brings up the freedom question. I find that very interesting. But he omits that there's also the variant I sketched, namely that fluoride could still be made available to the population, but not through water.

    Now, how does this factoid relate to the freedom (positive or negative) question?

    So, please don't read my post as negative, my intent was to bring an additional perspective to the table.