The American Dream is on life support. It has been mugged and beaten by the mentality that says anything you do that I don’t like, I will sue you for. It has been crushed by a government bureaucracy that passes rule after rule, expecting small businesses as well as large to comply, or suffer the consequences. A 2010 report by the Small Business Administration titled The Impact of Regulatory Costs on Small Firms found that; “As of 2008, small businesses face an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, which is 36 percent higher than the regulatory cost facing large firms (defined as firms with 500 or more employees).”[1]

Such costs are killing the economic engine that creates small businesses. To understand the mentality behind this increasing burden of regulations, one can turn to the issue of product liability and frivolous law suits. The famous case of Liebeck vs. McDonalds, also known as the “McDonalds Coffee Case,” is the “poster child” for frivolous law suits which, in turn, generate more and more regulations to “protect” us from ourselves.

Introducing the Stella Awards

In 1994, an elderly woman by the name of Stella Liebeck sued McDonalds when she experienced third degree burns as a result of spilling McDonalds coffee on herself. In her case, it was pointed out that at least 700 other people had suffered burns from similar accidents, thereby justifying the notion that McDonalds coffee is hot – and that people needed to be warned of that fact.

Surprisingly, without the benefit of the suit, most people know that coffee can create such burns. When I was in High School, my father once burned himself from spilt coffee brewed by my mother in our home. Yet, he did not sue my mother. Why didn’t he sue my mother, his wife? Because he had the common sense to understand that coffee is hot, and that there are consequences for spilling hot coffee in one’s lap. He did not need to see 700 other people burned by my Mother’s coffee to reach that conclusion.

One consequence of the Liebeck case was the creation of the Stella Award[2], named in honor of the woman who brought the law suit. Some claim that the award is fictional, but its focus strikes a resounding cord in Amercia: That we have lost our ability to apply common sense in everyday matters of life. One man, Phillip K. Howad, even wrote a book titled “The Death of Common Sense” in 1994.

Columnists and pundits around the country have used that metaphor to comment on this issue. In her editorial piece titled “The Death of Common Sense,” columnist Lori Borgman wrote in 1998:[3]

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports. Finally, when a woman, too stupid to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense threw in the towel.

The McDonalds Coffee Case and the Stella Awards provide a compelling story that most Americans can understand. It is the idea that “common sense and logic will not be tolerated anymore,” and that government laws and regulations have tied us in knots.

I am reminded of the story of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot. For over one hundred years, a knot tied by a king of Phrygia named Gordius was left on display by the temple of Zeus in the town of Gordium. An oracle foretold that whomever untied the knot would rule all of Asia. In 333 B.C. Alexander the Great came to the town, drawn by the legend of the knot which had defied many who had attempted to untie it over the years. Frustrated by the knot, Alexander drew his sword and crying, "What does it matter how I loose it?" and severed the famous knot.[4]

While most Americans do not know the details of why and how the increasing regulatory burden is crushing America, they recognize its effects. They understand that the notion of “Common Sense” has been abandoned and replaced by a “Nanny State” mentality. They want a President with 2020 vision who will seize this “Alexander the Great” moment and sever the Gordian Knot of regulatory red tape that is squeezing the life out of this nation.

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