Sue The Bastards, 2006 Edition

[Guest guest]

Sue The Bastards, 2006 Edition

 

Pop quiz: " Whose fault is it that so many Americans are fat? "

 

" 'Fault' is a hard word. " That's trial lawyer John Banzhaf's

inadvertently self-parodying answer to a question from anchor Stone

Phillips on last Friday's " Dateline. " Perhaps most (in)famous for

his participation in the failed lawsuit against fast food companies

on behalf of a Bronx native who blamed them for his obesity, Banzhaf

was ostensibly on the show representing all those hefty Americans

who hold restaurants responsible for their bulging waistlines.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/3107

 

Common sense tells us that what goes into your body is your

decision. But Banzhaf thinks -- or at least says -- differently:

 

 

It's hard to believe that just over the last 20 years, which is when

this [obesity] epidemic started, that somehow we all lost personal

responsibility. Because if we did, we'd have far more automobile

accidents, far more accidental shootings and so on. We don't see

that.

He argues that a restaurant's failure to provide warning labels

stating that food makes people fat is the cause of obesity. And he

wants to extract big bucks from the big companies that don't fit his

movement's ever-shifting standards.

 

 

Banzhaf: If I can go there and show that a company misrepresented a

product, I can sue on that basis alone and never have to prove that

a single person became obese...

 

Phillips: But nobody's forcing us to eat fast food or to eat so much

of it.

 

Banzhaf: No. But if a fast food restaurant doesn't tell you in an

effective manner, what's in the food... if people are confused --

thinking, for example, the Chicken McNuggets, because they're

chicken, is [sic] healthier than the hamburgers -- people can't make

those choices.

Beyond the fact that most of the Food Police's favorite targets

provide easily accessible nutritional information about the products

they sell (for a few examples, see here, here, and here), the real

problem with Banhzaf's blame-business-first mantra is its limited

understanding of consumer choice. Just as you get to choose between

the salad and the cheeseburger once you're in the restaurant, you

also get to decide which restaurant you want to go to in the first

place.

 

Restaurants are in the business of pleasing customers. If they

don't, people simply won't come back. The fact that Banzhaf's

targets haven't already posted all the gratuitous warnings he's

calling for is evidence that consumers aren't clamoring for them.

 

But it's no secret that Banzhaf isn't really looking out for

consumers. (This is a man who sells lawsuit kits on the Internet.)

And he's garbing his greed in the guise of public advocacy.

[Guest guest]

, " JoAnn Guest "

<angelprincessjo wrote:

>

> Sue The Bastards, 2006 Edition

> Pop quiz: " Whose fault is it that so many Americans are fat? "

>

> " 'Fault' is a hard word. " That's trial lawyer John Banzhaf's

> inadvertently self-parodying answer to a question from anchor Stone

> Phillips on last Friday's " Dateline. " Perhaps most (in)famous for

> his participation in the failed lawsuit against fast food companies

> on behalf of a Bronx native who blamed them for his obesity, Banzhaf

> was ostensibly on the show representing all those hefty Americans

> who hold restaurants responsible for their bulging waistlines.

> http://www.consumerfreedom.com/news_detail.cfm/headline/3107

 

 

I dont know whether to laugh or cry after reading this article. It

just goes to show how far the mockery of personal responability has

gone. So its the resteraunts fault for not disclosing what's in its

food? It's the man's money and mouth that landed him in his " weighty "

prediciment and its his and his fault alone.