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A Society that Venerates Lawyers More than Doctors
· Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Those of us who are not true believers in expanded government are certain of the following:
If the 1,990-page House Health Care Bill becomes law, the average American will receive worse health care, American physicians will decline in status and income, American medical innovation will dramatically slow down and pharmaceutical discoveries will decline in number and quality. And, of course, the economy of the United States will deteriorate, perhaps permanently.
However, we are also certain that there is one American group that will thrive -- trial lawyers. The very existence of a 1,990-page law guarantees years of, if not more or less permanent, lawsuits. And the law actually specifies that states that do not limit attorneys' fees in cases of medical malpractice shall be financially rewarded.
What we are seeing here, therefore, is something unprecedented in our history: Many trial lawyers will earn as much as most physicians, and fewer and fewer physicians will earn as much as successful trial lawyers.
Nothing better illustrates the reorientation -- indeed, the transformation -- of values that will take place if the Democrats' health care legislation is passed. Thanks to trial lawyer/Democratic influence, for decades, we have been moving in the direction of litigation-based society. But with a Democratic health care bill, the movement will accelerate exponentially.
Much of our money, our innovation, our creativity and our ingenuity will gravitate from medicine to law.
Young people who wish to make a good living -- and even talk themselves into believing that they are also doing good for society -- will opt for trial law over medicine. As far back as memory goes for living Americans, a young person who wished to do well, as well as do good in life, would likely choose medicine as a profession if he were bright enough and willing to put in the great number of hours necessary.
In the last generation, many of the brightest chose finance -- as it turned out, another often unproductive and often destructive arena -- to make a lot of money while believing that they, too, were doing a lot of good for society.
With the financial professions in trouble and in some disrepute, and medicine being financially and socially devalued -- doctors are increasingly called "health care providers" (along with nurses, physician's assistants, lab technicians, etc.; they're all the same) -- law, especially trial law, will be seen as offering the most opportunities for making a great deal of money.
No rational person argues that society doesn't need law or lawyers, or that all lawyers, even trial lawyers, do no good. That is certainly not what is being argued here.
But it does say something about a society when those who sue physicians and hospitals make as much or more money than those who heal disease. It says something about a society when it glorifies and rewards those who litigate while it demonizes and punishes those who produce the drugs and devices that keep its citizens alive and well.
This is part of the upside-down world the left is bequeathing to us and our children in the name of health care "reform."
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Marcus Guy
Lawyers SHOULD be the first line of defense for the citizenry against tyranny by a government since they are the stewards of the constitution and the law. Since institutions of learning have developed a liberal bent, these lawyers don't see themselves as guardians of the citizen, but of the government. Lawyers are therefore becoming a domestic enemy and should be treated as such. They have abdigated their responsiblilties moral and ethical and have written laws to create more criminals within our society and thus a consistent source of revenue for themselves and government. Again, this make them the enemies of the citizenry not guardians of the primary law of the land. they are simply a new brand of pirate.
how long they think they can continue to get away with this is a question we should ask our lawyer friends.
Great article, and we need more and more of these sorts of articles revealing the ever increasing sliminess of the "legal profession".
Posted November 3, 2009 at 10:51:31 AM
Doug Perdew
I believe I asked before, but I will ask again. It is clear that we can use our military more at home than we can over seas. lets use them to help us to clean up our mess here in the United States so we can vote people in that care about our Constitution. Or do we have to do that ourselves ? Because the next thing they will want to do is turn the military on us. Don't think so ? It is happening everyday in other countries. They are tearing apart the only law [ our constitution ] we have protecting us and our children ! God help us all.
Posted November 3, 2009 at 1:58:00 PM
MichaelSSEC
Mr. Prager once again has hit upon a salient point, but as usual his desire to be nice has led him to write a column that speaks a far kinder truth than the harsh reality it reveals. The fact is, it's a LOT worse than Mr. Prager has said.
If all this health care reform is really necessary, why do they have to lie about so much of it? They lied about most of the reasons for passing it. 47 million dying for lack of health care? Total fantasy. The fact is, nobody is denied health care in America. Even if you just talk about uninsured, the 47 million figure is still grossly inflated. The actual number is more like 8 million because the Left's figure includes illegals, people already covered by other government programs, those only temporarily without insurance while they change jobs, and people eligible for insurance but who refuse it for whatever reason. Why inflate the figures with such dishonest accounting?
The Left claims the insurance companies are profiteering at the expense of everyone's health. Fantasyland again. The fact is, health insurance companies performed at middling rates according to the Fortune 500. Some of them lost money, a great deal of money. And note very carefully that not only does Obamacare NOT deal with tort reform, but as Mr. Prager described, it specifically encourages states not to deal with tort reform.
Since there's only about 8 million uninsured, why not write a bill that covers them? You could do that in far less than 2000 pages, without handing 1/7th of our economy over to the government, without putting bureaucrats in charge of our health care, and without crushing innovation or development. So why the push to do those very things?
There can be only one reason: Democrats want to create a massive expansion of government, so that it reaches deeply into everyone's lives and exerts control they never had before. And unless we step up opposition dramatically, they're going to ram it down our throats. So, are we going to let them?
Posted November 3, 2009 at 4:11:22 PM