The other day I went to buy some canned refried beans. When I read the label, I noticed that it contained refined sugar. WTF?!? There should be no need for sugar in refried beans! After recovering from the shock, I went to another grocery store, where I found refried beans without sugar.<p>Why does this happen? Obviously, sugar tastes good. That has to be why companies add it to all sorts of things. However, if most people were like me, they would read the label and refuse to buy anything that unnecessarily contained sugar. The companies doing this would lose money, and soon stop doing it. But the opposite has happened. Why?<p>There can only be one explanation: most consumers are dumb. However, when you read about stuff like this in the mainstream media, it&#x27;s always framed as if &quot;big evil corporations&quot; is the whole problem. That &quot;average Joe&quot; has a low intelligence is never mentioned. Of course, the media wants as many consumers as possible, too, so calling most of their potential readers&#x2F;viewers stupid is probably a bad strategy, even though it&#x27;s the truth.