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Originally Posted by wolf
Somebody ran the formula from Fight Club, didn't they?
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No doubt
Let's make up some numbers:
This thing came out last year, was widely advertised and won a boating product of the year award. I'm going to make a conservative estimate and say they sold 5,000 units. They retail for $599, but can be had for about $450 in some places, so let's say after materials, fabrication, shipping, marketing, etc. etc. they net $100 on each unit. That's a profit of $500k. One or two lawsuits, even if SportsStuff won, could eat up most of that in legal fees. And if they lost with any kind of settlement, well, game over Charlie. Not to mention the negative press that could impact their other product sales.
Now let's look at the press release for the recall. They claim 29 injuries requiring medical attention. We know from the press that two of those were deaths. Let's assume that about half of these were from people with excess testosterone (witness the internet video of the guy getting on the tube and telling the boat driver, "Just gun it, dude!"). So 15 injuries and one death affecting users following directions. That means, in a year of average use, you stand a 0.3% chance of being hurt seriously enough to require medical attention, or a 0.02% chance of death. (Given the estimate of number of units is correct).
<sarcasm>The system works.</sarcasm>