--- John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I'll actually trust 12 random persons chosen from
> the local brew-pub
> over the hand picked "expert" of Pfizer every
> fucking time where
> Pfizer's possible negligence is the issue at hand.
[WS:] This is a false dichotomy and populism, John. The individual litigation system makes people think they have a chance, but in reality they don't. They either do not have access to law in most cases and even if an attorney agrees to litigate their case (i.e. when he smells money rather than when it is a just thing to do) - the whole process is so convoluted and rigged with monied influences that the outcome is anything but certain. It only helps perpetuating the perennial founding myth of capitalism that "one day I may strike it rich, or beat a big guy." The chances of that happening are about the same as winning a lottery but it is a never-dying fantasy of the populist mind that it is the way out of this shithole.
In other words - individual litigation offers nothing but a bandaid solution but it makes people think that it gives them a chance against corporations. I think that the peril of such illusions is worse that the occassional benefit of litigation. It gives people false hope and makes a completely inhumane, corrupt and fucked system more palatable to them.
I agree that corporate power badly needs to be reigned in, but litigation is the least effective way of doing it. The only way to do it is through government regulation - but that requires a collective action for which this country seems unprepared right now. Sometimes I think that the only way to push people toward such an action is to thoroughly destroy their populist illusions that this is "their" country in which their individual actions like writing their congressmen or serving on jury duty count.
BTW, EU does not depend on 12 random persons in regulating its industries but on government and experts - and fares far better than this corporate money-rigged shithole in this respect.
Wojtek
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