Get Rich Quick Schemes
In the old "cowboy" movies when you think that "someone done you wrong" you had a duel and shot at each other. Today, when you think that someone done you wrong, you sue them - en masse. Plainly stated, victimhood is big business. We get breast implants and coincidentally we get sick, so we are the victims of Dow Corning Industries. We think that too many people are getting shot so we decide we are the victims of the people who make guns. The similarity to both of these industries is deep pockets. There is a lot of money to be made by suing big companies. You have suffered, and you want money.
It doesn't matter what the scientists and doctors say. It just matters that you are sick and you want somebody to do something about it. The Dow Corning Industry has suffered repeated abuse at the hands of trial lawyers, the courts, and juries who felt sorry for the "victims" of breast implants who subsequently developed some form of connective tissue disease.
A jury in Texas awarded four women, who sued 3M on the basis that their breast implants made them sick, $1.5 million. Afterwards, some of the jurors admitted the "evidence" that the implants had caused the women's sickness was not convincing. However the jurors said they felt sorry for the women and figured that 3M could afford the payoff. After all, 3M makes a lot of money every year, so what is $1.5 million among friends? As it turns out, the State Court of Appeals overturned the verdict. Justice Ross ruled that the evidence put forth by the plaintiff's expert was not scientifically based - the theories had not been tested or published and they had not been submitted for peer review. Juries see these corporate fat cats sitting there at the table with their high-priced attorneys and decide that even if the evidence is not compelling, they feel sorry for the sick people and want to give them some money. What juries don't think about when they are handing over 3M's money, is that it isn't just the rich executives they're hurting, it's the worker on the line who loses his job because it costs the company so much money to litigate false claims. They don't think about the worker's children and the fact dad no longer has a job. They don't think about stockholders who can possibly lose their lifetime earnings. These stockholders are grandmothers and nuns and your next door neighbor who use these investments to pay for their children's education and to finance their retirement. It is easy to blame the rich guys because they are the most visible, yet it is the people who are not visible who get hurt the most. The most frightening aspect of these lawsuits is that study after study has shown no statistically significant relationship between women with breast implants and connective tissue diseases. Studies that have been conducted within the scientific community have been published, have been subject to peer review, and are highly regarded as accurate and meaningful.
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