What has America become? We now blame the restaurant when we spill our hot coffee. The cigarette companies are responsible for the health woes of smokers.  In a similar vein, governments continue to embrace legalizing and taxing casinos as long as we fund education with those tax dollars?  People now ask: Why not legalize prostitution and drugs, place huge taxes on them and fund healthcare…Further, if you are personally hurting economically, why not get cast on a reality show and degrade, denigrate and exploit you and your family? 

Human beings desire for money has not changed; greed is a constant.  We have a legal system that has incentivizes irresponsibility, recklessness and stupidity.  I can’t wait for the fast food industry to be grilled by Congress, so they can pay for the obesity they conspired to create in the name of profit.  They will no doubt be eaten up with lawsuits from their well fed patrons.  The preening panelists will express outrage toward the use of friendly clowns and lovable mascots that entice kids to get hooked on the obesity causing delights like hamburgers.  What of the monster burger and super sizing…get the pitch forks; it’s time to spear these conspiring fat cat executives who launched this sinister plan!  

I recognize; there can be nefarious characters, unseemly campaigns/practices in any human organization i.e. legal, corporate or governmental. However, this abdication of personal responsibility carries a high price, liberty. There are always ways to shirk accountability and rationalize immorality by claiming ignorance or highlighting the financial benefits; the ends justifying the means, respectively.  Tragically, when there is a case of actual negligence, the true victims are marginalized and their transgressors are not punished. The sacrificing of basic moral principles in order to serve the greater good only perpetuates misery and pain. From hot coffee to state-sponsored lotteries to the mainstreaming of televised courting through exploitation, we have born witness to this phenomenon. The ideology of unaccountability: behavioral cultural, or financial, all lead to destruction. Let’s all agree to stop blaming the burger!