Thursday, July 29, 2004

Food suits

The 'Ruinous Sport', Round 2

The ruinous sport Freese refers to is suing corporations for money to cover the expenses of individuals who act irresponsible.  Round 1 were the tobacco suits, and round 2 are the suits against food chains and manufactures.

With Medicare paying for the treatment of obesity, it sets the stage for states suing the food companies.  Only this time, there are a lot more companies and there is a lot more money available.

If you are fat, then that means the sum of all the meals you have ever eaten have made you fat.  Which means every single food company has contributed to you fattiness, even if it is a company like dole (who does not specialize in the cooked meat area). 

So for a state to recoup the money, they would have to sue every company that anyone in their state had ever eaten.  Though they want do that because they can't manage a lawsuit that big.  They will sue a few major companies.  

Which a lot more people work for these companies than work for the tobacco companies.  Hurting these companies has the ability to hurt a lot of people , which will in turn affect the consumer spending, which will hurt the economy.


cube

2 comments:

Stephen said...

20/20 had a piece on trial lawyers and their negative effect on consumers. Then they tied it all back into John Edwards and either breast implants or cerebral palsy/c-section births. Pretty interesting.

Man of Issachar said...

yea edwards has been involved in one case where his goals was backed up by less than scientifically valid facts.

also, he has never done a case pro bono either (what ever that means, but i think that means he never did anything for free, which it would help if did one of those every once and awhile, makes you look real good)