So....no comments at all from fellow ATS members on American consumerism and the ignorance it breeds? Or why we all seem to be happy being treated as though we had the brains of a two year old when we buy coffee from McDonald's with a little warning on the side that it will be a little hot before we take a sip?

Originally posted by EnronOutrunHomerun
So....no comments at all from fellow ATS members on American consumerism and the ignorance it breeds? Or why we all seem to be happy being treated as though we had the brains of a two year old when we buy coffee from McDonald's with a little warning on the side that it will be a little hot before we take a sip?

Ummm...just saw this, missed it in the shuffle.

I think I understand your point.

I agree that consumerist society caters to ignorance. The reason is the need to reach the lowest common denominator in order to capture the largest market.

But. Many of the product warnings you see today like "don't put this plastic bag over your face" or "coffee is hot and can burn you" etc are not actually there for the consumer and they are certainly not demanded by them.

They're put there by and for the lawyers. The ones that work for the companies who are trying to keep the ones that don't at bay.

It's the litigious nature of our society that is responsible.

PS: the shrimp were yummy. Thanks.

The reason McDonalds put a warning on there coffee was a result of a law suit filed by a lady customer who burnt herself whilst drinking the coffee.She successfully claimed l belief was around $500,000.00.Since then they have had to issue the warning to prevent further claims.Greed and a good lawyer are to blame for these types of acts.

Originally posted by Gools
PS: the shrimp were yummy. Thanks.

Awesome

Yeah - I know why those legal dislcaimers are there and most of the law suits that brought them about...and I agree with what you've said about trying to reach your entire target market...but at some point is there not a boundary b/w what is common sense and what is required by law for clarification?

It seems that f everything is not spelled out in today's society then it's either grounds for a law suit or explanations for the 1% of the population who are too thick to get it...

Why should we allow a man to sue Nabesco b/c he got fat from eating Oreoes?

Is a line ever going to be drawn or are we just all going to have to waddle into this muk together, hand in hand, singing "the wheels on the bus..."

[edit on 9/23/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

[edit on 9/23/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]

Funny...

Where I work "Tim Hortons" there is a little label on the side of our coffee. It says "Caution: Contents may be HOT!"

No s**t buddy!

You'd think that they want their coffee/tea/other hot beverages to be hot.

Lawsuits aside, I am all in favor or removing all of the stupid warnings from products. If someone is stupid enough to iron their clothes while wearing them or tries to blow dry their hair while taking a bath, they deserve to die.

The gene pool could use more chlorine if you ask me...

The lawyer-speak is only part of it.

We also have such a variety of cultures living together (or being the targets of our exports) that there is no more "common frame of reference."

Read on a bottle of antibiotics: "Take one pill BY MOUTH three times daily." Where did you think I was gonna put it? Um, well . . . it was for diahrea, right?

But my doctor says that in Africa, most medications, even over the counter, are dispensed as suppositories. There ya go.

Another is the number of idiots in a population of 290 million. Too stupid to live, but not too stupid to reproduce.

about 6 years ago, I just loved watching the floodwaters, washing trees across the road, and the cops come up and set up a roadblock. Here comes the first dufus, who drives AROUND the squadcars and OVER the burning flares, and into the water. I and a group of homo sapiens applauded as the cops on the other side arrested him. "But I thought I could make it . . ." was his defense.

Talk to an ER nurse, and ask how many teenage girls come in, with the remnants of a rubber band and a ziploc(tm) baggie up their privates. They were 'improvizing a condom' for safe sex. A level I trauma center clears at least one of those cases a month. seriously.

Then there was the immagrant family that suffocated. The flood waters cut off the electricity, so they decided to cook dinner over their charcoal grill. It was pouring rain outside, so they set it up in the garage . . and asphyxiated themselves.

The list goes on and on, people.

A thousand years ago, when I was a junior level management trainee, I got reprimanded at a company meeting. Manager asks "can someone tell me what to do if there's a fire in this waste-basket?" I immediately said, "Put it Out." Wrong. Survey says that employees are not authorised to handled the situation. Call 9-1-1 immediately.

I was considered a smart aleck for suggesting that someone shout "fire!" to co-workers and mgt before picking up a telephone.


Enron, that is why I now live in the country. people actually stop to help each other change flats. They wave. and if smoke is pouring out of your garage, they come running (of course, some of them are probably hoping it's a barbeque!)

Folks in the sticks still think for themselves, which is why I love redneck america.

Rant did a thread a month or so ago on that very topic. The folks who still try to run their own businesses that have signs in their yards saying "Guns Smithed" or "Home-grown Tomatoes" or "We deal beanie-babies".

You have to admit, some of the instructions do provide a good chuckle in otherwise dull and boring days (will prob get into trouble for the language on this sign...oh well, it's worth it hehe

At my POE, there is a shredder with three "no-no" symbols on it. You know, the circle with the bar from upper right to lower left.

The first is a staple. Fine no staples it is.

The next picture is a hand. Gee, so much for getting a manicure there.

The third one though, is a picture of a necktie with the "no-no" line through it.

So, were they just being funny, or do people really not pay attention to their neckties and shredders, or is this sort of an office prank that goes horribly wrong? I think one of the safety engineers has had too many steak dinners at Trail Dust.

+++++++++

Farm work is the second most dangerous US occupation, after mining. I farmed on and off for people since I was in junior high.

I used to work on ranches, and I'm trying to google some of the quite graphic safety symbols on farm machinery. There were days on the tractor where you'd be bailing hay and just kept staring at those signs, freaking yourself out. at first I thought it was me, but other workers and even the landowner commented on it.

The two that stick in my head are as follows.

On the cowling over the drive shaft for a hay bailer: not a "no-no" symbol, just a symbol of an arm and hand, wrapped around the drive-shaft like a corkscrew.

The other one was of a hand too close to two intermeshing gears. The fingers are just stumps, and what are obviously fingertips are flying out the other side of the gear, in the same order they would have come off the hand.

It was a John Deere machine, but I can't find the decals on their sites. Too bad, it'd freak y'all out, too.

"Warning - cape does not enable wearer to fly."

Maybe all the labels and stuff do some help. Apparently Pakistan just had a big kite celebration thing where everyone in the country flies kites. Twelve people were killed by kites or kite-related accidents in one day.

One of the best I've seen was at Dulles Airport outside of Washington DC. I shound have snapped a picture of it, and now I can't get into the airport far enough to snap a pic without a ticket...

It was in the women's restroom on the sanitary pad machine, and depicted a hand reaching up into the machine to steal pads without paying, and the fingers were all severed and bleeding and starting to tumble back out of the machine. It was more graphic than I expected a warning sign to be - don't usually see bloody stump fingers on those things.

Another classic was at Fatima in Portugal - there was about 12 different "do not" symbols, and one with a woman dressed rather whorish with her boobs and cleavage showing and a super miniskirt on.

Let's not overlook the silica gel pellets that come in clothes pockets, shoes, electronics.. DO NOT EAT! As if I was thinking there was free candy in the toe of my new shoes.

HAHA! They're at it again!

[url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/29/burger.lawyer/index.html]http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/29/burger.lawyer/index.html[/ url]

The restaurant at the five-star Marriott West India Quay in London's Docklands required diners to complete a form which said it waived the hotel chain's responsibilities should they suffer food poisoning.

Here's my favoitr line which stands for everything I started this thread for in the first place:

Nick Scade, chairman of the Restaurant Association, said: "It strikes me that some corporate person has got their knickers in a twist.

"You've got to have a bit of common sense somewhere in life and if a customer wants to order raw meat, they have to accept some responsibility for the risk they are taking."

Of course, being in the culinary industry myself, I know this is not some "rare" or new case of a restaurant covering their ass...but still...ya gotta love it...


EDIT: For some reason I can't get that link to work...I know it looks like there's a space in there on the end code, but it's not there when I try to edit it...anyways...if you're interested, you can C&P it...

[edit on 9/29/2004 by EnronOutrunHomerun]