Security is never something I should want, it is always
something I have to have.  

 Security has to resign itself to being
second-class in the hearts and minds of society.  Security has to be
provided in response to it's environment and not complain about it's
lot in life.

(I realize that this post doesn't say anything about people "dying" -
I've heard that in other contexts.)

>Society holds individuals accountable for many forms of irresponsible
>behaviour.

This is true, but individuals are not held entirely accountable.  A
reckless driver can cause a multi-car accident on an exit ramps and
cause a tie up for the entire morning rush.  Are the "victims" of
this compensated?  What about the person who loses a job offer
because of a missed interview and suffers fallout from that?

And maybe it isn't recklessness.  A failed water pump may cause a
breakdown, followed by an accident, etc.  Mentioned just to spread
the analogy out.

>There's no need to make exceptions for
>computer users. Make computer-owners/users pay in full for damages
>caused by their equipment with no discount for incompetence.

If that happened, then computer users would be the exception.  I
can't think of any situation in which an accident might occur and the
one causing the accident pays in full to everyone.
[snip]

I used to work for a gov't facility whose mission was science.  They
had a serious telecommunications problem on their hands.  Although it
was important to solve, they funded science first - up until all the
telecom problems became "too annoying" and money was allocated to
solve the problem.