Comments on: Is Stupidity Killing America’s Productivity?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:26:05 +0000

now i have been noticing this… decline in the intelligence of the general population as a whole. some of these people dont even think before they act.. or yes the fact that they are either A)stupid proofing something or B) taking the sharp corners off as you have put it…. such as cars who park themselves for someone who cant handle the simple task of putting the car in the parking spot. they are trying to make the world a safer place. i completely agree with your statement about them not needing to contribute to the gene pool…and these people who ate Mcdonalds and got fat or spilled hot coffee on themselves and sued. i dont even think that should have been allowed into the court room.. these people need to be held accountable for their own actions. now im not entirely sure on this one but last i checked if i spill hot coffee on myself at home i cant go suing the pants off maxwell can i?? so why does the court even bother allowing these idiots into the court house? Personally we need a Standardized aptitude test after which if they fail they lose all reproductive organs. but hey thats just me…

(o and btw LOL at the eggs with the warning label reading :may contain eggs..)

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:48:38 +0000

Interesting perspective, but I don’t quite agree with you. For example, consider a small company that wants to make good quality football helmets in the US. Their goal is not to “disregard human welfare”–they are trying to make a good product that protects people playing a game. No matter how safe they make their helmets it is unlikely that they will be able to afford insurance to cover themselves from lawsuits. If an idiot puts on one of their helmets and tries to do some crazy stunt on a skateboard, their is a pretty good chance that they will be liable if he hurts himself.

The end result? No one (as far as I know) makes football helmets in the US anymore.

Don’t get me wrong–I think corporations should be responsible for what they do, but I don’t think they should be responsible for every possible thing someone might do with their product. If you seriously don’t know it is a bad idea to raise a running lawnmower above your head, I don’t think you should be allowed to sue the lawnmower manufacturer.

By: bptr

bptr — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:36:44 +0000

It’s not left-wing laws trying to protect people that are the problem. It is exactly the opposite. The same thing has been going on and getting worse for decades. Money-grubbing Corporations have taken over our government and society. Corporations want to insulate themselves from all responsibilty (meaning lawsuits finding them culpable) so that they may freely steal money recklessly with total disregard for human welfare and at the same time dupe the stupid and confused right-wing people (who think the riches will somehow trickle down to them) into supporting them. These are the same deluded hysterical reactionaries who also support outrageous draconian laws that “get tough” on crime.

By: Mark Shead

Mark Shead — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:08:08 +0000

@Shannon – I wouldn’t take it too personally. The police I’ve talked to say that it really does help them catch people who are making meth.

By: shannon abdollmohammadi

shannon abdollmohammadi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:13:39 +0000

I walked into my neighborhood pharmacy to purchase my daughter Sudafed per counsel with her general practitioner. It has been more than 10 years since I required this over-the-counter medication and was stunned when I found a group of paper cards with Sudafed advertising that read “take to pharmacist”. I sincerely thought that pharmacy staff were keeping the medication behind the counter so that tyrants would not tamper with them…boy am I naïve.
I handed the cashier the Sudafed card and she whispered she needed my driver’s license. I was mystified! I asked her why she wanted it and she said “We need to make sure you are not going to make meth with it”. I was beyond furious and incensed. How dare she attack the dignity I have in front of my 12 year old daughter. I asked to speak with her superior and was told that the ID requirement is a federal policy and my information will be kept in a database to track any attempt by me to purchase large quantities at various drug stores.
I have never felt so insulted and unpleasant than I did right then and there. I have never even smoked a cigarette or been drunk and some pharmacist suspects me of wanting to buy Sudafed to make meth. What has this countries pharmaceutical laws succumbed to? Does this dim-witted policy really curtail the amount of meth being manufactured in this country?
Perhaps I would not have been so infuriated if Miss. Cashier would have said it in a different way than “We need to make sure you are not going to make meth with it”. I guess a few bad apples really do spoil the bunch!!!!!

By: Poopsie

Poopsie — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:25:51 +0000

Common sense is not that common ~ why is it called Common sense then??
I am a firm believer that the common sense gene has been mutilating as stupid people are breeding and society is not allowing kids to scrape their knees anymore.

I rode my bike EVERYWHERE through the woods at night and all but when mom told me to be home, i was and if she didn’t, i was still at home between 6P and 6:30P no matter what.

Clean the gene pool a bit and only allow lawsuits that make sense like criminal stuff, family things and such but by golly cut out the BS suits about people suing about cutting of a body part with a chainsaw because it did not state “WARNING: May cut off body parts.”

By: Mover

Mover — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:34:46 +0000

Mr. Snead,

I agree there is too much intrusion by government in the lives of Americans.

Somehow over the years Americans have come to rely on government to implement every “there ought to be a law” that has crossed anyone’s mind. Marry that with representatives who require important issues to be used to garner your support, their need to spend other people’s money on things that are none of their business, and homes where the kids are unsupervised and both, if there is two, parents working to pay taxes and you get the environment we have today.

The government will tell you they have a vested interest in making laws to protect the uninformed from damaging themselves. Recall that your tax dollars are paying the medical bills for a lot of those emergencies. Young adults don’t buy health care insurance. I didn’t have any until I was 25 years old. Children from poor homes don’t either. So, the government is picking up the bill. We wanted it and we got it.

BTW: I support the idea of safety labeling for nearly every kind of product and material the people can come in contact with. Our society doesn’t allow for families to teach children what is hazardous and how to avoid being injured. Parents have to work to pay taxes so the government can take care of all this stuff.

By: Alpesh Shah

Alpesh Shah — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:51:07 +0000

This society in America has become to litigious ; suing companies for every little thing and it’s why these rules get into place. I understand that there is def. some good concerns with some lawsuits but most of them are just people looking to get something for nothing.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:36:29 +0000

@Dmitri Honestly, from what I’ve been reading recently – the UK is worse about “Nanny-ism” than we are here. But I’ll admit I can’t say that we’re lagging far behind.

I’ve long held the opinion that laws exist to protect you from the maliciousness of other people – not from your own stupidity.
Unfortunately, such a stance won’t get you elected to anything other than a BBS moderator.

By: Asher

Asher — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:35:49 +0000

This article is hilarious and terrifying in its accuracty. We live in a world that feels it needs to legislate to the lowest rung of common denominators out of some mealy mouthed fear of Darwin and I’m tired of it.

Lick a light socket and get killed, our collective IQ will keep rising until one day on some distant shore we can all tie our shoes and chew gum at the same time.

Example: I lost my mind last night trying to buy Vicks at the HEB (read grocery store).

While using the self checkout to avoid the barrage of dumb dumb’s, the 11 year old running the at self checkout counter not only wanted my ID –since I obviously looked under 21– but she had to check my out of state license against a book with pictures to confirm I wasn’t pulling a fast one…

WTF is wrong with people?

Did she really think a single bottle of Vicks was my master stroke?

If I had pooled my resources to create some new identity where I was old enough to buy something with an age requirement I didn’t meet, I’m guessing it would be a case of beer not something for my cough…

This is some serious slow poking mongoloid-*********ry… anybody know where I can pick up a supersoaker and a bottle of bleach?

No reason…

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:18:59 +0000

That list was hillarious.

In all seriousness no amount of warning labels are going to prevent people from doing something incredibly stupid. You have to make a few stupid mistakes before you start to learn from them. Common sense used to be a lot more common than it is now and I find that highly disturbing.

I still remember sitting in the back seat of my parents car as a kid without a seat belt and holy shit they were still smoking at the time. Here’s the outcome of that bad behavior – NOTHING I was never hurt in a car accident and the minimal amount of second hand smoke I received didn’t do me any harm. Does it mean we should go back to this? No; those things are generally bad but you don’t need to be excessive about it. Parents should stop relying on warning labels and teach their kids to behave and not do stupid things.

Rather than all of these warning labels they should make common sense the law and if you break it your fines should help pay off all the stupid lawsuits that exist as a result of stupidity.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:52:54 +0000

You may be able to buy bullets without an I.D, but you CAN NOT buy powder without one. Until a bullet is pressed into a cartridge with powder and a primer, a bullet is useless. What are you going to do with it, throw them at people? Stop with the knee-jerk reactions and use your brain.

By: tom

tom — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:16:37 +0000

Its not really about letting idiots do these things because all of these incidents have turned into legal matters. Some guy suing Mcdonalds for getting fat or the other stories you hear.

Society has turned into a legal matter environment, where everything needs to be written on paper.

By: Gaytor Rasmussen

Gaytor Rasmussen — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:44:37 +0000

I live in Washington State. Over the Holidays I went to a liquor store to buy some alcohol. My brother-in-law from Europe was with me. He did no bring his ID. Since this balding 28 year old was with me without ID, they would not sell me, a 35 year old, any alcohol. If I had a 15 year old child they’d sell it to me. Government should step out of the way. If someone wants to huff paint, give them extra and let evolution do it’s work.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:42:47 +0000

When I was a wee youth, living in Manhattan, I used to carry my socked rifle to school on the public bus. I would leave it in my locker, and shoot on the team, in the school basement.

I can remember getting into a good solid fistfight maybe once every three weeks or so, someone would get their ass handed to them, get up and be alright with it. Never once did I think to go to my locker and shoot the guy.

Firearms are a tool, for self defense (I live out int he woods, takes the police 35 minutes to get to my family, on a good day, what can a bad guy do to your family in 35 minutes?) – Don’t buy into the fear.