Following along behind little Bear-dog, aside from the unique perspective, gives me plenty of time to think about things. Bear’s signals regarding his feelings about the character of some of the characters we come across during our walks leads me to think about some of the things people do with no regard to the consequence. And then the really dumb part, how society reacts to those actions.
I recall reading a newspaper article about a man who was trying to break into a school. He climbed up on the roof and ended up falling through a skylight or an arboretum or some such glass covered part. The sudden stop at the end of his fall resulted in permanent back injury. He sued the school or the school board and won a million dollars (or similar amount).
In my mind, climbing up on the school roof to break in to find stuff of value was really dumb. This was back before computers were in schools so what did the poor slob think he was going to steal? marks?
Then to be so stupid as to sue someone when your injury is clearly your own fault…that’s even more dumb.
But then I have to mention the judge who awarded the settlement…I thought judges were chosen because they were smart! In my opinion, someone really messed up there. If I had been the judge, I would have made the dope pay for the damage to the school and then for wasting the court’s time and resources. I sure wouldn’t have been rewarding criminal behaviour. Maybe they were related…at least their IQs were…in my opinion.
Whoever said that society has to make up for people’s stupidity? Where do you think the million dollars came from to pay this knucklehead? Straight out of taxpayers pockets and the quality of the education system since the school board likely took a budget hit.
I think people need to be held accountable for their own stupidity If someone takes a hammer and bashes in the windshield on their car, they have to pay the cost themselves to fix the car. However, if they take the same hammer and bash them-self in the head, the rest of us pay, via our taxes, for the health system to fix them up AND, if they manage to cause them-self brain damage, the cost to us taxpayers can become astronomical.
If someone dresses all in black, walks along the edge of the road (or down the middle of road) at night and they get hit by a car, the driver (via insurance) will get stuck with the bill, even if there was a perfectly good sidewalk the person could have safely walked along. I just don’t get the logic with this. Now, I don’t advocate running someone over just because they are dumb enough to walk up the middle of a dark road at night with total disregard for their own safety but I do advocate for people being held accountable/responsible for their decisions.
I think that if we can get our heads out of our butts and start holding individuals accountable for their choices, we will go a long way toward conserving resources, unclogging our court system and, best of all, actually prepare the population to better take care of themselves. There is going to be more on this thread so look for it under Stupid Insurance.