Only in America

You know what is both ubiqutous throughout the world and at the same time uniquely American? I think the asnwer to this riddle is human stupidity. Don't buy it? Just look at some of the videos on You Tube. In fact human stupidity has become so pervasive that people make idoits of themsleves, inflict injury on themselves, or take crazy risks just to have something to post on the Internet. One could argue that at least a few years ago people got paid to be morons and it made a little more sense. At least making a movie like "Jackass" provided the....well...jackasses with a little income. Now there are hours of jackass-like video clips posted everday on You Tube just for giggles. These posts come to you from every corner of the Earth, so this idea of human stupidity is truly pervasive.

What is truly American about human stupidity, is that we have legions of people who get to make a living off the stupidity of others, they are called trial lawyers, or more specifically personal injury attorneys. Let's just say that the power mower has yet to be invented. We are going to be economists for a while here and make a series of assumptions, so the power lawn mower does not exist. Let's assume that one day by a stroke of sheer brilliance or complete dumb luck my buddies and I stumble across the idea of a 2-cycle engine driving a whirling blade encased in a container with 4 wheels, a throttle, and a starter. Voila - we now have a power mower. Let's also say that my friends and I are smart enough to know that while very useful and meeting a significant need in the market, we understand that our product can be dangerous if used inappropriately. Therefore, we sell this product with every reasonable warning and direction we can imagine. Do not operate on steep hills, do not operate while intoxicated, do not fill with gas while the engine is hot, keep all body parts away from the blade while running, etc. etc. We have given the world a very useful product that will save untold hours and created a better life for millions.

Let's go back to point number One, human stupidity is everywhere. Even though every human on the planet knows that this is a dumb idea, I bet you anything that there will be some loony-tune out there who will try something stupid with our newly invented lawn mower. Some powered-by-beer fraternity genius will try to do something like cut his hair with the power mower. The result will be predictable...srerious injury to the "user" of our product. Here is where the unique American twist to ubiquitous human stupidity comes in...someone (personal injury attorney) will get to make a living off of druken frat-boy's stupidity. Under strict prodcut's liability, we, as the inventors of the lawn mower, should have had the clarevoyance to see that somewhere, someday, a frat-boy would think that cutting his hair with a power mower was a good idea and we are liable for the serious injury resulted. We will be sued for some one else' moronic behavior. That is where the Americanization of human stupidity kicks in. We allow others to make a wonderful living off the pure unadulterated stupidity of irrational consumers. The personal injury attorney will take us to the cleaners, or will try to take us to the cleaners, because his client is an idiot, we have money based on the value of our invention in the market, and there is no downside risk for him to sue us.

So while there is no corner in the market in human stupidity, there is an American corner on the market letting trial lawyers get rich bacuase of it. Guess what many of our politicians did before they became politicians? Guess what presidential hopeful John Edwards did for a living before entering the world of national politics? Hint: He didn't invent lawn mowers or anything else of value. See the problem now?