cowanpp

I read the opinion from the first McDonald's lawsuit that was dismissed. The judge basically set out a road map telling future lawyers how to properly sue McDonald's. He dismissed the case for failure to state a claim (I think), but then listed all of the other ways the plaintiffs could have stated their claim in order to survive summary judgment.

ISP James

way to remain objective, judge moron

White[Pony]

I'm heavy... but I don't blame McDonalds/BK. I blame my parents for not teaching me proper eating habits when I was a little kid And the fact that I'm lazy.

This reminds me of when dubcac said blaming the spoon for fat people.

Tobra

This is symptomatic of the biggest problem facing our country. Total lack of personal accountability. This is also why the idea of socialized medicine will fail in the US. If it is put in place, it will collapse due to all the fat smokers milking it dry. There are so many lifestyle(Primarily caused by poor choices) diseases, diabetes, heart disease, HIV could be largely stopped by people making reasonable choices, not eating to excess, exercising, wearing a condom. People are unwilling or unable to do the right stuff, so they should be able to sue someone for it. McD's just has deeper pockets than the parents.

ED9man

How does this shit not just get laughed away before it even starts?

Tobra

Because there is money to be made by plaintiff's attorneys

MrFatbooty

While these lawsuits are indeed rather frivolous, I am a firm believer that the conservative insistence on leaving everything up to personal responsibility must be moderated to a certain degree.

I will now provide the following hypothetical anecdotal examples since that's what seems to work when conservatives try to prove anything:

- It's not the governmnent's responsibility to force car companies to continually make their vehicles safer. Don't think your car is safe enough? Okay, take the bus. If the free market that doesn't actually exist but we can continually assume does in rhetoric demands safety equipment then the car companies will build it.

- Don't like the bacteria, rust and lyme in your drinking water? The nonexistant free market for water provides you with choices other than the pipes provided by whatever municipality your house is in. Drink the bottled stuff or move somewhere else.

- Want to eat healthy? Figure it out for yourself stupid, we're not going to use the government to force the food industry to put nutrition labels on food.

Where does relying on personal responsibility alone end? These are all real stances conservatives have taken in opposition to things like automotive safety requirements, water standards and nutrition information.

Just like the rhetorical ideal of the free market, which has never existed in this country and will never exist in this country, personal responsibility is one of those tenets of conservatism which exists out in the ether but only can be applied in its pure form with limited benefit.

I'd say most of the politically active thinkers, the people actually doing something in some way to shape policy other than vote, regardless of their views or beliefs have some kind of ingrained distrust of people in general. Conservatives lament the lack of personal responsibility, liberals like myself say that the average human IQ is 100 and that ain't exactly very smart. The difference lies merely in that liberals want to provide some kind of safety net for people in spite of their lack of what conservatives would call personal responsibility, to use that rhetorical concept which to repeat my earlier assertion, doesn't actually exist in its pure form. If government took it upon itself to truly leave people up to their own devices there would be no government.

Nightshade

Who makes sure the busses are safe for transport?

Who makes sure the water in those bottles is up to healthy standards?

There is governmental responsibility in those things and they set up a system of judgement to make sure the standards are followed.

It is not a "conservative vs liberal debate" in these matters it is common sense and keeping people in line with what is better for the majority of its citizens.

ISP James

nope its not. and liberals are all for the average man running the gov't.... so either we want to create a super smart elite class for gov't (which we all know nobody wants, ESPECIALLY the libs) or we have people who are equally stupid determine what is safe and acceptable for the good of the public.

this isnt about gov't though. its not about liberal vs. conservative. its about some ignorant fat kids that want something for nothing so they dont have to do what most of us do.... go to college or just go right to work. and bust ass to make their way. its no big secret that fries and greasy burgers are bad for you, its common knowledge. nobody forced these kids to go to mcd's 3-5 times a week, why dont they go to subway and hang out with fatass jared once in a while? oh cuz they want somethng for nothing and subway is slightly more costly and unless you find some glass in your sub, you cant find anything to sue them for.

MrFatbooty

As I already said, when applied to suing McDonald's for making you fat, that does in fact come down to personal responsibility. It does because it is well documented that habitually eating fatty, salty food as sold at McDonald's or any other fast food joint isn't healthy.

But what you pointed out is exactly why the ethereal concept of "personal responsibility" doesn't work. Government regulation always exists as long as government exists. It's just a matter of deciding what things are subject to regulation; and whenever someone doesn't like that proposed regulation they say "personal responsibility" should be left to run things, even if that regulation is something which would actually be of benefit to society and poses no negative other than further eroding the ethereal concept of personal responsibility.