Liability, litigation, we hear these two words almost every day in America. Well, almost every day is an exaggeration, but it feels that way. I call them "the Curse of the Double L". Because everything and everyone is liable, and litigation is just around the corner, companies in particular go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that they will not be liable under any circumstance. The most famous example is the one where X prints in their coffee cups "contents may be hot"; right, as if any one with a tiny bit of sense would expect anything else from a cup of hot coffee... You see, even I am becoming liability obsessed; I didn't mention any brands, in case they would come after me for ridiculing them on the web.
Today we came across two examples of the "coffee-cup syndrome" and we thought they were worth sharing. The first one is a supermarket paper bag that says "please hold both handles". OK, Jarl explained to me that supermarket paper bags in the US don't usually have handles, so this is to make sure that people see the difference, but pleeeeeeeeeeease, give me a break!, are there really people out there who would not realise that those are handles? Or that using both handles is safer? Or that a paper bag with handles is just like a plastic bag with handles? Did this company actually have to do this because someone sued them for dropping one of the bags, because they didn't explain that both handles should be held at the same time? Why not give more explanations, like "please make sure not to wet paper bag; water may damage the paper", or "please make sure not to touch paper bag with fire; fire burns paper"? Arrgggghhhhhh, this is all too much for my sensitive brain!
The second example is a sadder one. On a pack of chocolate soy milk we found the following warning "not to be used as infant formula". Did this mean that someone had actually used chocolate milk as infant formula? And that the company in question was considered liable? I mean, shouldn't instead the parent be charged for negligence, for being so ignorant as not to know that chocolate milk is not baby food? What kind of country is this?!
The "Curse of the Double L" leads to another negative result, a "nanny state", one where even the most elementary things have to be explicitly explained, and explained, and explained again, to make sure that nobody has any accidents or misfortunes, even if they happen to be the main culprits. It also leads to the corrosion of social trust, to a society where everybody is a potential litigant, where everybody sues everybody else for all and nothing.
(L)
No comments:
Post a Comment