Why Stupid Should Hurt

Pain is a powerful teacher, and that people learn from painful mistakes better than anything else.

People that do stupid things have a much better chance of learning from it IF it causes them real physical pain.

If we protect people from hurting themselves, we actually are doing them greater harm by not allowing them to learn.  And we are doing society as a whole harm, because really smart people can learn from the mistakes (and pain) of others.