Commentsby
Bob Brandon....
I Don't Believe a Word
Oh sure, like THAT'S going
to happen. Don't hold your breath. It'll be a cold day in hell.
You may get the idea that we're a very cynical culture. I wonder
why? It couldn't possibly thanks to the Lawyers and their legalized
extortion machine, the Court System?
The thing that's got me rolling
my eyes today is the ridiculous Tobacco Class Action verdict. You
know the numbers, the largest amount ever assessed for punitive damages,
$145-Billion. Do you realize how much money that actually is?
It's somewhere along the lines of idiotic.
First off, the law in Florida
stipulates that juries cannot award an amount that would put a company
out of business. Depending on which numbers you use, this would probably
put several tobacco vampires out of work.
It would also do nothing
to help millions more smokers who are or will be suffering in the coming
years, and it does nothing to discourage smoking, since any shortage of
cigarettes would be taken up by foreign sources.
If the price goes sky-high,
no problemo. You know how pervasive drugs are in this country?
If Phillip Morris or RJ Reynolds go belly up, there's a guy on the corner
than can get you a pack of French butts with not questions asked.
But aside from the fact that
the judgement is probably going to be delared null and void, there is no
way the legal community is ever gonna let sweet Tobacco die. These
guys have been making damned good money off perpetual court challenges
since the early '50s! That's right, fifty glorious years of appeals.
Long live the hardly leaf!
Not only that, but thanks
to the self-supporting nature of the American legal system, not one dime
of the $145-B will be disbursed until every single member of the class
action has had their day in court. With over 300,000 sick smokers,
that could take at least another 50 years. Not to mention appeals.
So if you're a smoker, don't
worry, they're not gonna take your precious coffin nails away just yet.
They're just gonna make you pay through the nose...even more than you do
now.
And what if they possibly
did find a way to make Evil Tobacco pay up, what happens to the rest of
the 25 million or so smokers who are left? Where does the money for
their suits come from? If it's all soaked up with this one judgement,
it will deprive a much larger class of people from having their day in
court.
See, it's no wonder no one
believes anything anymore. It's all just a steaming load of crap.
(Legal disclaimer:
By "steaming load of crap," I mean just that.) |
