When you travel by airplane, why do they offer life vests instead of parachutes?

Well, your either too high, or too low. In an emergency at 20-30,000 feet, if you jump out, you ear drums will explode, and you will probably pass out before you could activate it. If your too low, you would slam in to the ground. If the pilots have to fly the plane down, they don't have time to regulate the altitude, nor to get everyone off in the split second of time. Ethiopian Airways crashed in the water, and many survived becuase of the life vests.

Neither would help, being able to pull off a water landing is as likely as a parachute helping at 30,000 feet when traveling 500 MPH.