Choking Hazard

A friend is getting engaged. They are going to Vegas. Little packages of fun have appeard on the table. Bubbles and Confetti. I was staring at the confetti thinking about how this had been purchased with the intent of throwing it every which way, at what ever appropriate time. Later it would be Vacuumed and or swept up and thrown away. I wondered how much a little box of litter costs. But I guess it's all litter in the long run.

I was thinking about all that when it occurred to me that box should have a choking hazard warning on the box. It was full of tiny little plastic discs, surely it would have a warning. I flipped it back to the front and indeed it had warning. Choking Hazard. How stupid do you have to be to not understand that you can choke on something? Who are these people who can read, but are still at risk of choking on little plastic things? Or the parent out there who takes the box of choking hazards out of their childes mouth to see that it doesn't have a warning on it. To then return it to the child. “I guess it's not a choking hazzard, there's no label.” Have you ever choked on anything? Did you think “holy crap they should put a warning on that?”

I imagine most people assume, as I do, that that warning isn't there to stop stupid people from choking. Every little box of little plastic things is labeled to stop the small contingent of people out there who are smart enough to know that it's a choking hazard, but stupid enough to prove it. The same reason that coffee is labeled hot. Because someone was stupid enough to think that dumping coffee on ones self is an act which could be prevented with a label, and the lack of label on that coffee is a malicious act wich requires retribution.

I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler to just label these people who keep choking on stuff. We could just make them all wear t-shirts that say choking hazard. It would be so much more simple. The things which are at risk of choking are labeled as such and the rest of humanity can go back to assuming that the vast majority of us are smart enough to know what is or isn't a choking hazard. Unless of course the rest of humanity isn't smart enough to know a choking hazard when they see one.

I'm inclined to think that's not the case but just thinking about it makes me feel as if a pair of hands are closing around my neck.