Lightning round

[jk]

Re: Lightning round

health: i used to think the bad statistics were explained by the fact that we had 2 health systems. a good one for people with money, a crappy one for people without money. i then discovered our statistics were worse even for people with money.

new hypothesis: crappy diet, officially supported by the dept of agric food pyramid, the u.s. medical establishment's commitment to the lipid hypothesis of heart disease, and the prevalence of [subsidized via the corn lobby] junk food/fast food.

[jpatter666]

Re: Lightning round

Med. mal. is dead / dying, thanks to various state-level tort reforms. God forbid, if you should get catastrophically injured from true negligence, you will quickly learn that it is a struggle to even find a good attorney who will take your case. It just isn't worth it. Might as well stick with commercial litigation -- at least the damages aren't capped.

There are always anecdotes / horror stories (often made up). I would also advise you to hold your criticism until you see some of the heartbreaking cases of true negligence that are out there that get turned down now.

(Also -- why does it seem like the so-called libertarians the ones also advocating tort reform? You do realize that in the libertarian fantasy-land, damages between private parties are supposed to be taken care of through such a system, correct? And that "tort reform" is just code for "arbitrary damages cap"? Or do you not actually care about equal justice under the law, but rather your own ephemeral gut-feeling of "justice"...)

Munger, It's tempting to be as sarcastic in my replay as you were in yours but I'll keep this civil.

I've seen both sides. Truly legitimate cases, and frivolous nonsense (and I've seen it directly, not rumor). I'll admit I'm not sure the problem is solvable. Big companies *are* often victimized by frivolous lawsuits where they settle because the court costs would be more than the settlement. The converse is true where a big companies wears down a legitimate lawsuit by dragging out the process.

And I do think tort reform is part of the process -- but that'll never happen. Too many lawyers in Congress and I adhere to Mark Twain's comments on that.