Article 3. Government shall make no law imposing liability on a seller or manufacturer for occurrences caused, in whole or in part, by actions over which said seller or manufacturer had no control.

One of the features of modern American society is an implicit denial that people are responsible for the consequences of their actions. This is reflected in both a "tort explosion" and in laws imposing liability on manufacturers and sellers for harm done by their products. The result has been such extreme rulings as the one holding a telephone company responsible for an injury suffered by a caller when a drunken driver crashed into the telephone booth. Another example is a ruling holding a tobacco company liable for the lung cancer of a heavy smoker.

Underlying this implicit denial of individual responsibility is a search for "deep pockets." If someone suffers, a search is made for someone else who is sufficiently wealthy to alleviate the suffering, and who has some plausible connection with the cause of the suffering. Wealth is dissipated in litigation instead of being used either for investment or consumption by those who produced the wealth.

Business owners also seek ways to reduce their potential liability. They may delay the introduction of new technology or products. They may fail to investigate the safety of their existing products, since finding a flaw is an open invitation to a lawsuit by some user.

The end result of denying that people are responsible for their own actions, and claiming instead that someone else is responsible for anything that goes wrong, is to make us all poorer. However, this is not the only result. The most serious result is the denial that we are fit to govern ourselves.