The death-spike industry

You know, the industry that specializes in making inexpenive furniture by using the army’s surplus of death-spike machines as foundations. The sell cheap chairs and sofas that pulsate sharp deadly spikes in regular but distant intervals. Sure, they never mention the death spikes, marketing their products as “comfortable, yet impossibly affordable”, but everyone knows about the death spikes. Plenty of morons have gotten themselves killed by not leaving the furniture in time to escape the spikes’ eruption; Darwin in action, of course. Some of the family members of those “victims” actually expect the companies that sell them to claim responsibility (I guess they’re nervous because they have the same moron genes that their now-dead relatives have). They say that companies have no business selling deadly products on the market in the guise of something good and benificial.

Yes, I’m talking about the needless junkfood industry, and any other industry that knowingly sells destructive products to the public. I don’t understand the kneejerk response whenever these firms are chastized. Outside of the screening of Super Size Me I attended, there were actually people protesting the film in defense of McDonald’s. The flim is a documentary in which the filmmaker creates an experiment where he eats nothing but McDonald’s for a month. McDonald’s supposedly sells “food” in the form of “meals”, and so, he ate three entire McDonald’s “meals” a day. Of course, by the end of the month, that “food” made twenty pounds heavier, nearly killed his liver, made him less sexually potent, depressed him, and gave him other health problems. Now why would anyone defend McDonald’s in this case? At least tobacco and alcohol companies market their products as recreational, but McDonald’s supposedly sells food; what we all need to survive.
Why should people only be resonsible for what they buy, and not what they sell? I hope nobody would defend a person who sells crack to children, so why defend Frito-Lay for selling the addictive poison they sell to kids? Can somebody explain the jealous defensiveness people have about these companies?

Hey. If you don’t like addictive poison, move to one of them Communist Countries where it is strictly regulated. I like my addictive poison. And don’t think it’s because it’s addictive either. I consume addictive poisons by choice. I could give them up any time I want. I - hey, my TV show is back on. Later!

I just know I’m getting whooshed by that first paragraph in the OP, but I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.

It’s an analogy. He’s saying that if the sofa manufacturers sold their goods with a “death-spike” embedded in them and relied on people to simply know about the death-spike without being told about it, jumping off just in time to avoid being killed, then we would not be too impressed. Especially if they continued to make claims for the sofas’ benefits in the face of the multiple deaths.

pan

I agree. No human being has the intelligence to determine that eating Big Macs 7 days a week may not be a good thing.

Your analogy of cheap furniture that occasionally and without warning projects a deadly spike into the soft, gooey innards of its unsuspecting occupants to purveyors of fast and junk food is flawed. As far as I know, once you get shanked by a spike you’re either going to die or be seriously injured. I suspect, based on the title of the thread alone, in most cases it’s the former. Last time I checked, no one has ever died or been seriously injured–excluding food allergies–from eating one fast food meal or one bag of potato chips.

You simply can’t be this obtuse. You just can’t. No one with any shred of intelligence is going to agree that sustaining yourself solely on McDonald’s “meals” is advisable.

Because McDonald’s didn’t tie him to a chair and force feed him. That’s why.

I think you should familiarize yourself with the following three concepts: personal responsibility, moderation and choice.

Personal Responsibility
You are responsible for the choices you make if all the information you need to make the choice is made available to you. It’s no secret that eating Big Macs and fries ain’t healthy. The nutritional information for McDonald’s menu items are available in the restaurant and on their web site.

You are responsible for what you feed your children. If your children clamor for fast and junk food all you have to do is say no. It ain’t that hard. C’mon, try it now. N-oh. No. See, it wasn’t that hard. Sure, the kid may cry a bit, pout or tell you all his friends get to eat candy for breakfast but so what. That’s what kids do. You cannot pacify your children with unhealthy food choices and then expect the government to step in and save them from those choices. Well you can but it’s an unreasonable expectation.

Moderation
There’s nothing wrong with eating a McDonald’s every once in a while. Those two apple pies I get once a month aren’t going to kill me.

Choice
I want the choice to eat a Big Mac if I want. I do not want that option taken away from me. I sure as fuck don’t want the government stepping in and taking that choice away from me.

As you can see, I’m not for saving people from themselves. Give them all the information they need to make an informed decision. If they still decide to eat fast and junk food everyday, so be it. If they get fat and develop obesity-related diseases, oh well. I’ll have not one shred of sympathy for them.

You know all those ads for sugar cereals where they say their product is “part of a balanced breakfast?”

So is the spoon.

How long have people been able to sell us stuff that’s bad for us, while telling us otherwise? Well, how long have aspirin and alcohol been on the market? A long time.

How long will they be able to continue doing it? How much money do the drug companies, the tobacco & alcohol industries, and MacDonalds have? Lots.

It’s a stupid op. I’m dumber for having read it and I’m none too bright to begin with.

I think I’ll sue.

Well lets see… Nobody is forcing these people to buy food from McD’s, Frito Lay or the like. Certainly nobody is forcing them to eat it all the time. You are responsible for what you put in your body. Eating “food” like this every once in a while will not hurt you. It won’t do you any good either but here and there will do no serious damage. Anybody that doesn’t know that eating crap like this all the time will seriously fuck you up is a complete idiot. The problem is that this food is so easy, quick and cheap that for a time pressed society such as ours it is easier to drive thru than to go home and cook a healthy meal.
I have not eaten fast food in 8 years and would rather do without than to eat that shit but you can’t hold a company responsible for what these idiots are doing to themselves. They provide a service, a questionable one at best, but as you said they are not concealing the content of their “food”. The information is out there. All you have to do is look. Sooner or later people have to take responsibility for their own actions.

Education is always a good start. People have to learn what this shit will do to you long term. Parents have to learn to say, “no you can’t eat that” and just because little Johnny down the street eats it all the time doesn’t make it cool or even ok. I don’t know how to do this without Government involvement because these companies are not going to regulate themselves. Labels and warning labels don’t work very well. How many smokers have quit smoking solely because of the warning labels. Not many. Real information on the health risks of fast “food” and the benefits of cooking and what constitutes a healthy meal will work.

You can’t legislate common sense.

Don’t eat that crap everyday, it’s pretty simple.

Gosh. I’ve eaten at fast food restaurants often enough, and yet I live. How can that be? Maybe because a fastfood burger has nothing in common with a deadly spike to the nether regions?

Anything in excess will kill you. You could repeat the Super Size Me experiment at the finest restaurant you want to name, and if you consistently overate three meals a day, the results would be the same.

I thought this would be a rant on Ikea.

There’s already a thread on this topic that you may want to join.

“Can somebody explain the jealous defensiveness people have about these companies?”

Seems to me that someone didn’t get a toy in their Happy Meal… :smiley:

This man has eaten at least one Big Mac sandwich every day for the last thirty years, but admits to having missed about eight times for inclement weather and his mother’s funeral. He now keeps extras in his freezer in case he can’t make it to Micky Dee’s. Anyhow, his cholesterol is only 155, so he’s fine. It must be something else you’re doing that’s making you unhealthy.

And why not?! They’re selling their products as “meals”, why wouldn’t they expect a consumer to accept them as “meals”? Especially since the idea that “food” can be “bad for you” is a recent and local phenomenon. Before, anything you ate that was bad for you was called “poison”.

From Merriam Webster Online

It seems like a Big Mac Extra Value meal qualifies as being a meal.

I find it rather ironic that the same people who want the government to stop dictating people’s personal lives in terms of sexual preference/activity want their own agenda forced on everyday people regarding dietary habits.

I can’t believe some people could be so gullible. I don’t know anyone who eats fast food/junk food because of its (non)existant health benefits. The people who jump all over fast food restaurants are also gullible enough to believe that Ronald McDonald is forcing that poor fat man/woman to keep eating their filth, day after day. People have it in their own capacity to make healthy dietary choices. They shouldn’t have it forced on them.

Don’t take your hate out on me. Frankly, I go to McDonalds because where I live their coffee tastes just as good as starbucks but for 1/3 the price. More dolphin, please!

First, he didn’t “overeat”, he only ate three “meals” a day. Second, fine restaraunts change their menus everyday, and have dishes with ingredients more varied than you can possibly stock your home within the average two-week grocery shopping interval. They also serve sensible portions. Thus, I doubt that experiment repeated at a real restaraunt would have the same results.

Bolding mine.

Eating healthy is much more expensive than eating crap. If you have limited resources, you have a limited “capacity to make healthy dietary choices”.

…where did I say anything about government dictation or taking hatred out on people? I’m just wondering why these places can’t be criticized without people hugging on to its plasic yellow breasts shouting “Noooo! Leave them alone, as if there’s anything commendable about them”.