by Valentine Logar

Created on: April 12, 2008

Ignorance can be corrected through education.
Stupid is a birthright often passed down in families but sometimes organizationally inherited. Stupid is a choice.

Definitions are my own. I do not feel sorry for stupid people, although they often make me angry. In this day and age, it is unnecessary to be stupid and yet people continue to choose stupidity. People who choose stupidity over the alternative show no self-consciousness or embarrassment regarding their choice, in fact, many rejoice in their decision to remain stupid finding the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. The truth is that stupidity is all too often rewarded in our society.

When talking about stupid people many use the example of the McDonalds Hot Coffee Lawsuit, The woman who sued was a 79-year-old former store clerk, Mrs. Liebeck. She spent a week in the hospital recovering from third degree burns. The attorney who took her case to court had defended other similar cases against McDonalds for the same cause, winning other settlements. McDonalds had settled coffee burn complaints over the past decade leading up to Mrs. Liebecks's lawsuit, 700 of them in fact, for as much as $500,000. The funny thing is that originally Mrs. Liebeck only asked for a measly $20,000 to cover her out-of-pocket hospital expenses. Someone at the Phoenix store didn't want to pay and McDonalds agreed that they were not liable. During the trial itself the defense attempted to shift blame onto Mrs. Liebeck using her age as part of the problem. The result was a jury that found in favor of Mrs. Liebeck in two respects, one that she should be awarded compensatory damages of $200,000 which they then reduced to $160,000 finding that she was 20% responsible or at fault. The larger award of $2.7 million was for punitive damages based on the finding of the jury that McDonalds showed a reckless and malicious disregard for the well-being of their customers. The trial judge reduced the punitive damages to $480,000 after trial. Ultimately the case was settled in a secret negotiation without another trial and the records were sealed.

The above is an interesting case in the annals of "Stupid" people. Most of us point to the victim and assume that she is stupid; but wait, was she the stupid one in this case? McDonalds served their coffee an average of 35 degrees hotter than the coffee served anywhere else, that is at 180 degrees. McDonalds had settled at least 700 other similar burn claims in the preceding decade. McDonalds executives

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