Pain and Suffering

I'm a pretty sceptical human being. When I hear stories about dead rats in salads or abandoned babies found on the side of the road, I almost always wonder if the person doing the "finding" is actually a perpetrator in the incident. In the case of the Haley family I seriously doubt it, and when a true wrong has been committed it becomes time for big business to pay up big time. I think there is something to be said for pain and suffering. I think it is real and I think it needs to be dealt with.

Hold on a second before you say anything. I don't mean the pain and suffering of the person with the negative experience. Although I don't doubt that it is terrible when your hands are scalded by hot coffee or your stomach is turned by a dead rat. No, I'm talking about the pain and suffering of the corporation. In many cases the only thing that will get a company to pay attention is to pay up.

I especially have little sympathy for places like restaurants that fail to live up to their end of the social contract. Of course everyone is entitled to get what they pay for. You buy a stereo with your hard earned dollars and you deserve to get something that works. The last piece of electronics I bought came broken. You can imagine my displeasure. But restaurants are the most important. Because there is (like I said before) a social contract with society. Is there anything we do as human beings that is more vulnerable to our personal well-being than to consume food prepared by someone else? Kings had attendants for the sole purpose of taking bites of their food to determine if it was poisoned. Not only do we invest a tremendous amount of trust in eating establishments but we pay them for it. Granted we are paying for the meal but we are also paying for the peace of mind that a reputable restaurant is providing us with a safe meal. Is that too much to ask? I think not. It's not like we are asking the fast food industry to keep the peace in Iraq. Nor are we expecting them to land a manned space probe on the Moon. It's food service for God's sake! If you have to invest more money in health and sanitation than do that and stop spending money on children's toys.

Keep in mind, I realize that certain fast food chains pretty much represent the "ass-end" of the culinary spectrum. I myself haven't eaten at certain places in over two years because basically the food sucks. But it is still supposed to be food, not a pet cemetery. So dig deep I say. Swing for the fences and force those multi-national conglomerates to pay up big. Why should big oil be the only company to be perceived as an evil empire in this country?