Oi_Ve
01-22-2006, 09:59 PM
Yesterday evening the light in my ceiling fan burnt out and if I wanted to replace I was going to need a latter, so I visited Lowes today and picked one up.
Got home, changed the bulb, and got ready to throw away the plastic wrap and instructions that came with the ladder when I noticed something: there were 41 instructions on how to use the ladder.
41 instructions! For a damn ladder!
Steps included such wise statements as: wear slip resistant shoes, don't over reach, and use side with flat steps.
That got me thinking, why exaclty did the people who made this ladder put all those steps in?
Fear of being sued, that's why.
I suffer from occasional boughts of insomnia, so I keep a bottle of sleeping pills around the house (that and you never know when you just might need someone rendered uncnscious :icon_bigg ).
The instructions on them read: warning: may cause drowziness
Ever read the instructions on a candle? Some include the suggestion "don't eat the candle". Wow, thanks alot for the tip!
Many of you may shrug and say "hey, there are some dumb people out there, just look at liberals" or "got to avoid those suits". But this isn't something to shrug off.
Labels are now so ridiculously basic that many people simply ignore the damn things all together, and thus they don't read the labels they should read.
Also, these lawsuits are costing YOU money and are stagnating inventive thinking. Lawsuits tack on roughly $500 on the price of a car; with pacemakers its $3000.
Some of you might be familiar with the name Peter Angelos: he owns the Baltimore Orielos. He bought it with the money he got from asbestos litigation which put Ownes Corning, Armstrong World Industries, WR Grace, USG Corporation, Federal-Mogul Corporation, and Kaiser Aluminum of Houston out of business (oh, and put about 60,000 people out of work). And the lawsuits don't stop with people who made asbestos: Keene Corp, which USED to make asbestos BEFORE it was sold to a new owner, Glenn Bailey, has been put out of business. Oh, and now they're going after Sear, Chrysler, Ford, and 6000 other companies.
All of that litigation costs money, and you end up picking up the tab 100% of the time.
Before the 1980's there were 25 drug companies that researched and manufactored vaccines. Then a lawyer somewhere convinced a jury that a vaccine caused autism in babies (which is impossible to prove) and the flood gates opened up and wide. Today there are 5 companies making vaccines, and they do it at a snail's pace.
Meanwhile we're facing terrorists with possible bioweapons like anthrax, small pox and more, bird flu, AIDS, SARS (man, haven't seen that in the news recently) and God only knows what else. Am I the only one who thinks these lawyers have compromised national security?
Food for thought...digest and enjoy
Got home, changed the bulb, and got ready to throw away the plastic wrap and instructions that came with the ladder when I noticed something: there were 41 instructions on how to use the ladder.
41 instructions! For a damn ladder!
Steps included such wise statements as: wear slip resistant shoes, don't over reach, and use side with flat steps.
That got me thinking, why exaclty did the people who made this ladder put all those steps in?
Fear of being sued, that's why.
I suffer from occasional boughts of insomnia, so I keep a bottle of sleeping pills around the house (that and you never know when you just might need someone rendered uncnscious :icon_bigg ).
The instructions on them read: warning: may cause drowziness
Ever read the instructions on a candle? Some include the suggestion "don't eat the candle". Wow, thanks alot for the tip!
Many of you may shrug and say "hey, there are some dumb people out there, just look at liberals" or "got to avoid those suits". But this isn't something to shrug off.
Labels are now so ridiculously basic that many people simply ignore the damn things all together, and thus they don't read the labels they should read.
Also, these lawsuits are costing YOU money and are stagnating inventive thinking. Lawsuits tack on roughly $500 on the price of a car; with pacemakers its $3000.
Some of you might be familiar with the name Peter Angelos: he owns the Baltimore Orielos. He bought it with the money he got from asbestos litigation which put Ownes Corning, Armstrong World Industries, WR Grace, USG Corporation, Federal-Mogul Corporation, and Kaiser Aluminum of Houston out of business (oh, and put about 60,000 people out of work). And the lawsuits don't stop with people who made asbestos: Keene Corp, which USED to make asbestos BEFORE it was sold to a new owner, Glenn Bailey, has been put out of business. Oh, and now they're going after Sear, Chrysler, Ford, and 6000 other companies.
All of that litigation costs money, and you end up picking up the tab 100% of the time.
Before the 1980's there were 25 drug companies that researched and manufactored vaccines. Then a lawyer somewhere convinced a jury that a vaccine caused autism in babies (which is impossible to prove) and the flood gates opened up and wide. Today there are 5 companies making vaccines, and they do it at a snail's pace.
Meanwhile we're facing terrorists with possible bioweapons like anthrax, small pox and more, bird flu, AIDS, SARS (man, haven't seen that in the news recently) and God only knows what else. Am I the only one who thinks these lawyers have compromised national security?
Food for thought...digest and enjoy