The American Dream
By Phantom On August 20th, 2012
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A rock star? The next business mogul? Centerfielder for the Yankees?
If those things don’t work out, you can always aspire to be a claimant in a personal injury lawsuit.
Tripped on a sidewalk? Sue the landlord or city.
Put on a few pounds? Obviously, its all the fault of McDonald’s or the food industry in general.
There was the famous incident in Philadelphia, a bus crash. Where people were observed hopping onto the crashed bus. Wink, wink, guess why they did that.
Watch television during the day in America, and every other commercial is like this actual ad. The UK is following in the Yanks down the road to Jackpot Justice.
Remember – its NEVER your fault. We’re all victims.
Sue ‘em!!
and the Democrat party is the biggest opposition to tort reform and recipient of campaign money from the american lawyer guilds
The Democrat Party is most culpable in this area, but it is noted that there are plenty of Republican lawyers in the House and Senate.
Lawyers are hugely overrepresented in Republican and Democrat state officeholders too.
The Republicans pretend to be for tort reform but they’re generally in on the same rackets.
The same lawyers who sued the cigarette industry are setting their sights on the food industry now. Massive, well funded lawsuits are promised. Lets see what the Republicans say about this.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_republican_lawyers_in_congress
You’re such a kool-aid drinker, Troll.
most politicians are lawyers, oh my there is something no one knew. Yet 90% of their campaign support money goes to the left. Gee why is that? I guess because there is no difference.
Those same lawyers going after the food industry are also starting class action suits against American Football, Say Goodbye to it.
As for my stance on Lawyers with of course the exception of our resident one my position is the same as Willies “Lets kill all the Lawyers, will do it tonight” speaking metaphorically of course
You need lawyers, but the US has more than twice the lawyers per capita as does Germany, and five times as many lawyers per capita as does France.
It is a huge problem, and it is why liability insurance, which I know a lot about, costs five times as much here as it does in other major countries.
It absolutely hurts our national competitiveness.
Don’t expect this to change either. Both parties generally like it the way it is, though Republicans ( give credit where do ) have done some good reforms in Texas and Mississippi, etc.
Despite the fact that there are a lot of yanks on this site I would probably still be able to lay claim to being the biggest American Football fan here. So I understand Troll’s concerns about the lawsuits surrounding the NFL.
The problem is that some of what they are suing the NFL for makes sense. The NFL needs to do more to prevent head injuries. The rate of suicide, homicide etc of former NFL players is significantly above the average for people of their age. Only a few months ago a soon to be Hall of Fame Linebacker Junior Seau shot himself in the chest almost out of the blue.
Also today it was announced that Colts Wide Receiver Austin Collie, who is only 26 years old, and has a young wife and a baby son, has just suffered his fourth concussion in two years.
The NFL isn’t doing enough to stop that and are only going to if they have to pay so much money that it makes it a financial necessity for them to change that.
The NFL has shown an extreme disregard for the health of its players over many years.
Your point is legitimate.
The vast majority of those who sue are, wait for it, non-lawyers. The juries who award excessive damages are, wait for it, non-lawyers.
here ya go seamus you”l love this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6mpHW3SMcc
It is a sue-happy society.
Lawyers aren’t the only bad actors.
But many are certainly among the bad actors. Real tort reform that protected the rights of the really injured and punished fakers is critical. Which is why it won’t happen.
There are too many vested interests in the current corrupt aystem, esp in states like NY
And it is just amazing that the national Republicans get away with pretending to be for lawsuit reform. Funny when they controlled the House, Senate and Presidency they didn’t do anything about the issue.
Lawsuits and the fear of them add huge costs to all economic activity in this country. Its been a big problem for decades, and there are no signs that it will ever be fixed. Victories are few and only at the state level, not nationally.
yeah Phantom and they paid for it, no one came out and supported them in the elections. They gave the Democrats control of both the house and the Senate.
Unlike you brain dead mind numb robots of the left the Right Wing does not just vote for someone because they have an R after their name.
Unlike your ilk that will turn out and vote for people that not only don’t get the job but make the situation worse, We Don’t.
so don’t speak about people getting away with things, It only shows once again how truly shallow both your knowledge is and your ability to analyze anything other than a subway schedule
Troll
Who are your favorite three Republican congressman or. Senstors? Serious question.
Oh and my subway runs about every 10 minutes 24 /7
No need to worry about a schedule
Current or Past?
Current elected officials preferred
Lets get into it a little deeper.
You want to know my favorite 3, I don’t really have any but I have ones that I favor and have favored over the years.
I idol worship no one.
Let me explain my perspective. Politics is a means to an end. It is the Arena that effects our lives. Mankind is both a very wondrous and dangerous creature.
We have rises and falls, we tend to extremes in most of our endeavors. Over the centuries that we have emerged from the forests we have tried differing variations of organizing our existence and interaction with each other to gain a balance.
A balance where people can live and thrive, grow and advance. All of history is filled with each step it has taken us to go forward and each step that we have fallen.
A thousand societies and nations have come and gone. We have created beautiful things, and deadly things.
Two things are always constant mans humanity in the sense of our willingness to help each other, and mans inhumanity our ability to kill one another. We have made great strides in both, and I am sure we are not threw. on both sides.
Right now in this period of mans history the American system is the one where mans achievements and failures are the peak of mans abilities. We can cure almost anything the breakthroughs that they are developing right now could extend our lives to immortality.
Here are two examples we are in the process of using genetic engineering to clone individual organs. It is the whole purpose of deciphering the gene code, that is one, here is two. we are in the human testing phase of a therapy that takes microscopic particles of gold and splices them to anti bodies that attach themselves to cancer cells. The patient steps into a chamber that bathes them in radio waves and the cancer cells are destroyed. no side effects no more cancer. That is on the good end.
Then of course the dark end. In passing last week discussing a test vehicle it was sideways released that we have overcome the material issues with scramjet technology. Using this form of propulsion we can station our entire air force here in the US and be anywhere in the world in an hour. Also from this material breakthrough we can fire a missile with nothing but a metal warhead bringing it to the velocity that upon impact it delivers enough kinetic energy that the blast effect is equal to a 5 megaton nuke, but no radiation no long term effects just death on a massive scale.
That is the creative sides of man good and bad. The social side of man is also reflected in our system. It is a unique experiment. Never before the US was a system designed as our with the power of control placed in the hands of the people set up to be executed through a simple set of basic laws and structures of power.
That system is starting to falter. It has been twisted and influenced as all things are over time by the flaws of men. Yet on this planet today the system even as it stands is a better functioning system than any other on the globe.
It is at a tipping point, do we decline or do we grow. To grow our government needs to be dismantled down to a level that it releases us from what is becoming a stifling tyranny. It has taken one hundred years for it to be manipulated in this direction. It will take decades if we choose to go in that direction to undo the tyranny that we have chosen to allow to take place.
You ask who I pick as my favorites, I could just as easily as Alan, and Pete pick Ron Paul. He talks a good game but he is a fraud. I see him for what he is a career politician that has accomplished nothing over the 30 years he has been in congress. He speaks well on a lot of subjects, but delivers very little.
Gingrich was a great politician, a flawed man, but what he achieved when he was in the house was incredible. Balanced budgets, welfare reform, the list goes on. And yes there were things he did that were not so great, but on the scales the benefits outweighed the bad.
If I were to pick one right now there is no one. The past 2 years have been a waste. Not for lack of certain people trying Ryan has done a yeoman’s job and Romney could not have made a better choice. But not one thing has passed the Senate, newt was able to get things through and signed. Ryan could not.
We are about to go to the polls I hope and believe that a correction will be made. How well it goes after that we shall see. But I know that in 3 months millions of people will peacefully either change the seats of power or reinforce the path that we are on under Obama. We will do it without killing each other. Once it is decided we will still not kill each other. It is not our way.
You see I am a constitutionalist, but I am a realist, not a revolutionary. One step at a time. We are not perfect but we are the best… have a little faith baby.
No matter what happens in our election the world is going to war. The Islamists have pushed it to the point that it is irreversible. They will not stop, and we will not lay down. Dark times are coming as they always do.
As I said it is the one of mans two constants.
3 good politicians Ryan, Rubio, Toomey. If I gave it time I could name more.
Yet right now there are no giants, in either the house or the Senate. No O’neils no Gingrich’s No McCarthies and No (thank god) Kenedy’s
I like Ryan, and give him props for really touching the issues that all other major Republicans and Democrats stay away from, that of entitlements for the middle class. Even though I think that means testing things like Social Security is a very socialist approach for any so called conservative to bandy about. And a) I keep hearing that his numbers don’t add up and b) he talks about closing loopholes in exchange for lowered rates but never quite gets around to saying which loopholes and by how much, points made by Krugman this morning.
So there’s that.
But back to tort reform.
When I’ve listened to right wing radio and Fox, I’ve heard very little about tort reform –except as a counterpunch to Obamacare, when they were grasping for something to propose instead of what Obama was for. Levin/Limbaugh/Hannity are totally linked to the Republican Party. And if they don’t care about tort reform, what does that say about the concern of the party on the issue?
Romney is saying the right things about federal tort reform now, but I don’t remember him saying much a few years ago.
Plenty of Republicans are on the fence on the issue.
Prominent Republicans like Linday Graham used to be trial lawyers. Don’t count on him to lead.
Some, such as this guy
http://7thamendmentadvocate.org/blog/2011/11/republican-sen-mike-lee-opposes-current-federal-tort-reform-bills/
and the nobody congressman from Texas actually OPPOSE federal tort reform, on the grounds of duh Konstitooshun, bla bla bla.
The Republicans have a very bad record on this issue. And I don’t think that ” the base ” is gonna get excited by this particular issue. So even if the Republicans sweep in 2012, I expect zero progress from a Romney / Mitch McConnell government.
If this issue is truly important to you, expect to be disappointed. There’s a lot of money to be made in chasing ambulances, and the Republicans aren’t giving up their slice anytime soon.
it’s not, I like you in this aspect see a room full of lawyers tasked with neutering lawyers… it ain’t gonna happen.
I would like to see more details fleshed out, but the current office holder is not going to let details be discussed about anything, at least if he can prevent it.
We know the bulk details of Ryans plan I posted the link the other day and told everyone to do their homework http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf a 100 page pdf has some good information but it’s not a fully fleshed out law. Never got tweaked by the Senate, and therefore never went to joint committee where the actual full details are written.
The important message by picking Ryan is Romney is going to flip the table if he wins. It will get very ugly. Means testing, portability, dismantling of the epa, If he wins and doesn’t match the job growth reagan achieved. It will be his ass nailed naked to the cherry trees on the whit house lawn.
Enemies will be made on both sides
Dismantling of the EPA = Freedom to Pollute our air and rivers at Will. Like in the pre-Nixon days before the EPA. No, that is a corporatist position, and a super stupid one at that. I don’t want dirtier air and water, I want –much– cleaner air and water than we have now. And so should you.
Germany is kicking ass economically, and they have much tighter environmental rules than we do. You don’t need to turn the Monongahela and other PA rivers into open sewers again in order to recapture prosperity. The opposite is true.
If you used the Canadian system 90% of your frivolous law suits would disapear
1. if you sue some one you have to be prepared to pay some of the defendants legal costs, the defendant has the responsability not to needlessly inflate his legal costs
2 Because of #1 lawyers work on a strictly fee for service basis, contingency lawyers are allowed but virtually unheard of in Canada
3. You owe a duty of care in your own safety and enterprises are allowed the defense of reasonable response. So slip and fall law suits almost never occur
An example: This is Canada there will be snow and ice so it is your duty to act appropriately and it is the stores duty to mitigate the risk as best it can in as timely a manner as it can, that does not mean completely eliminate it just control it in a reasonable manner.
If I went to a lawyer and said I slippen on some spilled milk in the 7-11 and I wanted to sue, he would politely inform me that there is no case unless I could prove that 7-11 knew about the spilled milk and did nothing to mitigate it for an extended period of time and even if I could prove it the settlement would be so low as to not make it worth while so he would not take the case
You make a lot of sense – and I have never heard any US politician speak with such clarity on the subject.