>Anyway, the main moral of the story of the film "Erin Brockovich" is that the
>best that environmental populists can hope for is to sue the pants off big
>nasty companies for a cold cash settlement. It ends up
>recapitulating the logic
>of cost-benefit analysis (so many cancer deaths = so many dollars of
>pay-off) instead of even vaguely recommending the possibility that some
>version of economic democracy might prevent all this bullshit in the first
>place.
_Erin Brockovich_ is also a story of upward mobility (a check for $2 million for Erin at the end of the movie) & evils of frumpy women. The main villain & butt of the joke in the movie is not Pacific Gas & Electric (much less capitalism) but Erin's female co-workers at Ed Masry's law firm & a female lawyer at a more prestigious firm than Ed's. The audience are to understand that a woman's upward mobility in large part depends on her beauty & willingness to put down less beautiful women than herself.
***** "Erin Brockovich": The real story
In the movie, the victims in the celebrated lawsuit won big. In reality, many are wondering where the money went -- and they're mad at their lawyers.
- - - - - - - - - - - - By Kathleen Sharp
<http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2000/04/14/sharp/> *****
Yoshie