Drug companies that make and market opioids like OxyContin are already defendants in lawsuits brought by more than 100 cities in America claiming the companies are at fault for promoting addiction, which leads to high costs for cities to deal with. The city council of Holyoke, a poor old mill town in western Massachusetts, voted to ask the mayor to join the lawsuits.
Tony Pomerleau, a real estate developer and entrepreneur who died recently at age 100, got his start as a 10-year-old asking neighbors in Newport, Vermont to mow their lawn for $1 — and then recruiting other kids to actually mow the lawns for 50 cents apiece. When he sold cars during the 1930s, the dealership told him to get rid of a car that wasn't selling for the list price of $135; he sold it to a farmer for $100 and a horse, then traded the horse to another farmer for $50 and a saxophone, then gave the dealership $150 (more than the original asking price) and asked for the saxophone for a commission — which he then sold to a music teacher for $35, "much more than he would have made for a straight cash commission," according to The Burlington Free Press.
