According to "The Myth of Job Creation", Editorial, New York Times, 2012-10-21, Obama and Romney agree that "government does not create jobs". The New York Times disagrees, "Except that it does, millions of them — including teachers, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, sailors, astronauts, epidemiologists, antiterrorism agents, park rangers, diplomats, governors (Mr. Romney’s old job) and congressmen (like Paul Ryan)."
It is so hard to break the Norquist attitude that government is useless. If government was so useless, why do so many corporations spend fortunes to get a government that will pass laws they favor? If government was so useless, why do so many corporations seek government contracts? If government was so useless, who would give corporations patents? If government was so useless, who would adjudicate corporations billion-dollar suits against each other?
Showing posts with label law suits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label law suits. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2012
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tort reform? Let's cover all the bases
Many are calling for tort reform, meaning that judgments against corporations should be limited in what is payed to individuals. However, there are three other kinds of tort cases - corporations vs. corporations, corporations vs. individuals, and individuals vs. individuals.
The amounts that corporations ask against each other dwarf by a couple orders of magnitude the amounts that individuals ask against corporations - billions against millions or less. The amounts that corporations ask against individual often exceed the individuals ability to pay. And suits of individuals against individuals are often settled in small claims court (or by Judge Judy).
The judgments against corporations in favor of individuals are not completely paid to the individuals. Yep, much of the money goes to "greedy trial lawyers". But why otherwise? Many suits against corporations are done on a contingency basis; that is, the lawyers only get paid if the judgment is made in favor of their client. On the other hand, many corporations have deep enough pockets to hire legal firms outright on an hourly basis, both for court time and research. Aren't the trial lawyers for corporations as greedy as the lawyers working for individuals? Isn't one of the reasons for a democratic government to give the Davids a chance against the Goliaths?
The amounts that corporations ask against each other dwarf by a couple orders of magnitude the amounts that individuals ask against corporations - billions against millions or less. The amounts that corporations ask against individual often exceed the individuals ability to pay. And suits of individuals against individuals are often settled in small claims court (or by Judge Judy).
The judgments against corporations in favor of individuals are not completely paid to the individuals. Yep, much of the money goes to "greedy trial lawyers". But why otherwise? Many suits against corporations are done on a contingency basis; that is, the lawyers only get paid if the judgment is made in favor of their client. On the other hand, many corporations have deep enough pockets to hire legal firms outright on an hourly basis, both for court time and research. Aren't the trial lawyers for corporations as greedy as the lawyers working for individuals? Isn't one of the reasons for a democratic government to give the Davids a chance against the Goliaths?
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