(no subject)

[yesthattom]

We live in a litigious society. When frustrated, we sue.

It dawned on me and my SO yesterday (and she deserves credit more than I do for this idea) that if government did their job of regulating things better we wouldn't need to be so litigious. That is, our litigiousness fills the void created by all the so-called pro-business deregulation which is really anti-consumer, fuck you, go to hell if we sell you something that we know is dangerous lets-trust-companies they-would-never-harm-us bullshit.

The lawsuit that put John Edwards "on the map" involved a company that year in and year out had done something that killed little children or put them in a situation where a machine would be required to keep them alive for the rest of their life. The company knew they could have changed their design years ago, but decided it was easier to settle any law suits for a small amount of money. If none of the consumers knew about each other, they could always claim it was a freak accident, and pay them off, begging forgiveness. Edwards found that there were 12 little children who's life was ruined by this company's defective product, and that their claims of "freak accident" wasn't true. They'd been hiding that it knew about this problem and kept it a secret. If this was the wild west, they'd be "run out of town", but it isn't. If this was the U.S. government 20-30 years ago, some consumer protection agency (state or federal) would have shut them down. But those agencies are now the caretakers of laws that have no meaning.

I want a government that regulates. That prosecutes. One that is fully funded to investigate 100% of the reports it receives. One that has the staffing and resources to mount a serious legal attack to shut down evil businesses, scams big and small, and won't fuck up something like the O.J. trial.

I want a government that sticks up for the little guy. Businesses have their own law firms. They don't need government support. Government needs to protect us from business.