Buyer Be Aware
There seems to be no good reason why manufacturers shouldn’t warn us about the dangers inherent in misusing their products. It seems like simple civility to remind people not to do stupid things.
Unfortunately, many businesses are not interested in being civilized; they’re only in it for the money. And the main reason they’re slapping on the warning labels is because they’re afraid of more lawsuits.
No one wants to contemplate the perils of boiling coffee in a Styrofoam cup from a drive through window. And a cell phone battery blowing up next to your head might merit legal reprisal.
But suing a ladder company when you fall from the top rung is something else. There is such a thing as an accident. Nobody is at fault. Whether performing surgery or standing on a ladder, you are unavoidably distracted, you make a mistake, someone suffers.
A Libertarian would have it that government has no business spending tax money trying to protect consumers from every conceivable mishap that can befall them.
But radical thinking aside, the biggest danger of the proliferation of warning labels is that we may come to rely unconsciously on the warnings, instead of taking responsibility for own lives. Common sense erodes when we don’t have to use it. To put it another way, when a society acts parental, its citizens act like children.
Although it is as difficult as any homework, there are ways to make educated choices — through the web, consumer reports, research, study, reading the chain saw instruction manual.
Whether it be ladders, cell phones, drive through coffee, doctors, stockbrokers or politicians, we must make it our business to be informed, to expect the occasional unhappy accident, and to accept the consequences of our own mistakes.
Caveat emptor.
Unfortunately, many businesses are not interested in being civilized; they’re only in it for the money. And the main reason they’re slapping on the warning labels is because they’re afraid of more lawsuits.
No one wants to contemplate the perils of boiling coffee in a Styrofoam cup from a drive through window. And a cell phone battery blowing up next to your head might merit legal reprisal.
But suing a ladder company when you fall from the top rung is something else. There is such a thing as an accident. Nobody is at fault. Whether performing surgery or standing on a ladder, you are unavoidably distracted, you make a mistake, someone suffers.
A Libertarian would have it that government has no business spending tax money trying to protect consumers from every conceivable mishap that can befall them.
But radical thinking aside, the biggest danger of the proliferation of warning labels is that we may come to rely unconsciously on the warnings, instead of taking responsibility for own lives. Common sense erodes when we don’t have to use it. To put it another way, when a society acts parental, its citizens act like children.
Although it is as difficult as any homework, there are ways to make educated choices — through the web, consumer reports, research, study, reading the chain saw instruction manual.
Whether it be ladders, cell phones, drive through coffee, doctors, stockbrokers or politicians, we must make it our business to be informed, to expect the occasional unhappy accident, and to accept the consequences of our own mistakes.
Caveat emptor.
posted by John Marsh at 4:45 PM
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