That...
Consumers eat Macdonalds burgers and become fat and have heart attacks - by and large, consumers are morons. Consumers have no interest in the greater good, just in what is good for them. Technology always takes time and money to evolve - of course a 15 mpg car is going to be cheaper, so the consumer will by that and that's what the automaker will make. That's why we have government to force them to do better. Based on the current education system in this country I wouldn't trust the average consumer to know what's good for them at all.
Just as companies aren't going to remove lead from paint because the government said its bad, only if they are forced to by law.
...just about covers the basic argument of any dictator, king, monarch, fascist, socialist, communist or modern liberal I've ever heard of.
I will submit to you that that mindset and the policies that follow it amount to crippling government intervention and 'protections' implemented under the guise of 'what's good for the people' that are the far deeper source of individual ineptness, suffering and dependency than any 'mistakes' that free people make, and pay for, out of our own ignorance or poor judgement.
Teach a man to fish, you've fed him for life.
Feed him. You've created dependency.
Interesting true story; A person I know very well lives in Africa, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, some other places, the last 4-5 years. We discuss quite a few things, always have. One thing we covered was that very analogy; She says if you teach most Africans to fish, they'll sell the fishing pole and use the money to eat.
That people choose to make decisions that poor does NOT require anyone to anoint themselves the keeper, aka, owner, of that person. The same argument, they can't help themselves, led to the 300 year acceptance of slavery. The same argument is enslaving Americans to the state today.
Chill out man. It's ok. 
