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Re: the Zapno (tm) anti-static device and dishonesty

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, RAUBER, JOEL wrote:

Beatty commented in part:

least in the USA
it is illegal (to say nothing of extremely unethical) to even
IMPLY any
kind of health claim.

It seems to me that you see health claims like this all time.

Certainly. But are you arguing that because it's common, this makes it
right? If not, then I don't get your point.


Here's how I think about it: if I myself was selling something like
Zapno(tm), should I decide to make medical claims? It's tempting to do
so, since it would probably increase sales. But such a claim would
deceive people, and I'd be lying in order to make money. My conscience
would greatly object to doing any such thing. It's just plain wrong, and
if I see someone else doing it, I think that perhaps I should object to
such behavior.

I recall the Feynman lecture which mentions the dishonest nature of those
old Wesson oil ads. They can greatly increase sales if they convince
everyone that Wesson oil won't soak through food, but it's a fairly
blatent lie of omission. In truth, oil from other companies doesn't soak
through food either! The whole Wesson Oil ad campaign was nothing but a
scam to deceive the public. This sort of thing is so common that informed
people just ignore it. But I think we need to discuss it for the benefit
of uninformed people.

Also, what if Wesson's sales plumetted because their customers disliked
being lied to? If we want to see a lot less dishonesty and distortion in
the world, we need to be less tolerant of it. Just imagine what the world
would be like if most people stopped voting for any politician who
stretched the truth even a tiny bit.


(((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com http://amasci.com
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Seattle, WA 206-789-0775 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci