Agent Lemon, you present an argument I can sink my teeth into, and will be harder to beat because it is a sound counter.
The car analogy sucks because minimum age requirements are set by law - you know, because it is a danger. Same for tobacco. Same for guns, explosives, fireworks - basically anything that's fun.
With regards to class warfare, the car did cause a lot of class division - the answer was mass transit, a perennially money losing enterprise that had to be put in place to placate the masses, and allow them options outside of factory-neighbourhood ghettos - mass transit is subsidised by the state everywhere. In a world where you cannot move you are at a huge disadvantage - and in an age like ours, not having the means to communicate & access the internet wherever you are is a worse one. Increasing productivity is a worthwhile pursuit, and if the risk to health is reasonable, then leave it to the consumer. But cell phones certainly represent a serious risk to kids whose cell division it at its height (look at the project in Japan to send seniors into the Fukushima zone for cleanup duty - they withstand radiation much better because their cell division process has slowed to a crawl).
I am not advocating giving up cell phones - they are an integral part of life. Incidentally if EM fields were a concern, then we would have to give up electricity (can you imagine if it turned out that electricity was responsible for cancer - how would we react?). We are already bombarded by radio waves from wi-fi, cell phones, TV, Radio...etc.
What I am saying is that Steve Jobs was an ass, and the world is better without him. Brian got me right - I am upset about i-life...etc. It meant the popularisation of useless shit, getting into bed with record companies, creating a cliquish social strata based around a hardware/software ecosystem, and propelling a dogma where you are either with Apple or against them - and it cannot be reasoned with. They call their salespeople 'Apple Geniuses' and have all of their followers thinking they are 'creative' when they are just mindless cattle consuming whatever they are fed.
Since I have already eaten crow for comparing Jobs to Hitler, I will continue down that path - like the Nazis, Apple:
- created new economic principles (ref Goebbels unpegging the Mark from the gold standard, apps as the primary revenue driver)
- invented new titles for their people
- held themselves and their followers to be superior to the general public (Master race/i-life)
- spent a huge amount on marketing (the Nazis actually created a Ministry of Propaganda)
- fuelled a dogma that could not be reasoned with
- created a fanatical following
- invaded privacy
- tried to take over the world
- made their followers suffer whether they understood it or not
In the end analysis, funny enough, the Nazis did win the war though. All western currencies are now unpegged from the gold standard and base the value on GDP, all have ministry of information / CNN / BBC..etc, jet and swept wing technology came from them, the US would never have made it to the moon on Goddart's research alone, and medical science took a leap forward based on their horrible research. In fact they even managed to get their conquerors to fight for them against the Bolshevik...great propaganda & spin.
Ok I am starting to realize that I am a little insane, but I don't see anyone else out on this limb, and it's the only place I can get good reception.