Consumer Disaster

Personally, I have had a few experiences with malfunctions from products of corporate American. Most every American has because, well, we created all these things and we are fallible. Reading Michael Petracca's "The Unluckiest Consumer In the World" was unbelievable. I know it was fiction but all those items that he listed were actually things that had been recalled because he researched Consumer Reports to find the defective items. This certainly painted a very ugly picture of corporate America. It displays corporate America as all about the money, not the safety and reliability of the product.

I have experienced dead battery's in my brand new used car, toasters that smoke and burn my toast on the lowest setting, clothes that fit crooked, computers that somehow attract electrical surges, and cell phones that ALWAYS have a low signal (world's most reliable network my tushy...). Most of these are not very life threatening however, like Petracca's "unluckiest consumer." My cousin and her family on the other hand, have had an experience with corporate American that was potentially life threatening.

This past summer, my cousin began experiencing debilitating migraines. However, she noticed when she was not at home, they subsided. It took her and her parents at least two months to figure it out, but they eventually discovered that their gas stove had a leak and that was what was causing her intense migraines. She was actually getting carbon monoxide poisoning. Natural gas from stoves can be extremely dangerous because flipping on a switch or even static on clothes or the carpet can cause an explosion when there is carbon monoxide in the air. They were very lucky that no one became seriously ill or anything else drastic happened because carbon monoxide is very dangerous.

Even though they have gotten their stove fixed it is still scary that something like that could happen. Corporate America truly is all about the money, and not the safety. How can we trust these products and the things companies say about them to be true?? I guess we all have to do our homework first (read Consumer Reports) and then judge if we deem these products worthy!