Sunday, August 14, 2005

The McDonald's Coffee Lady

Howdy y'all! Just got back from italy and boy are my arms not tired! Also, the rest of my isn't tired either becuase I have jet lag so I hope you all enjoy my 3 in the morning post.

Via Ezra Klien comes this article about how a lot of "wacky jury" court stories are really just urban myths. I say this as a starry-eyed defender of the jury system and a person who has personally argued for the the verdict of Stella Liebeck v. McDonald's against a bunch of Orange county conservatives on their own turf. These jury award tall tales are often used by conservative pundits to push objectivley bad policy. You always find these stories butressing conservative anti-jury anti-patient's rights policy proposals like capping jury awards. These in turn are often put forward as means to bring down medical costs.

No seriously, stop laughing, it's true.

I guess I can see how a political movement might grasp at that straw if their ideology prevents them from contemplating the same solution used in just about every other developed country in the world. That the premium spent on medical insurance doesn't really account for the inefficiencies in the system and that studies show that american malpractice insurance costs don't really go down when such caps are put in place should be enough to convince anyone of the stupidity of capping the amount given to people who have proved in a court of law that a doctor has been neglegent.

And just so we don't have argue with any trolls on this point: I don't think healthcare is a "right". I think we should implement it becuase it's more efficient.

posted by Tommaso Sciortino at 2:26 AM

Comments:

Ah, but is efficiency a right? (or, to be more exact, is efficiency a government goal?)

# posted by  Beetle Aurora Drake : 3:19 PM

 

I don't know. Further, I don't care. Whether or not effieciency is a right, it is something people seem to care a lot about when judging a political policy.

Even libertarians ceed that we need to have the government set up a military becuase it is much less efficient to have everyone provide their own territorial defense. Or are they arguing that it's a right or something? Whatevs.

# posted by  Tommaso Sciortino : 6:19 PM

 

Snark aside. Efficiency is not a right. If a bunch of people vote to waste money on a escalator to nowhere I would think that was stupid, but I wouldn't say that a member of that community would have standing to sue for inefficient use of his tax dollars.

# posted by  Tommaso Sciortino : 8:37 PM

 

"And just so we don't have argue with any trolls on this point: I don't think healthcare is a "right". I think we should implement it becuase it's more efficient."

socialism is effecient? wtf? what u smokin m@n.

socialist healthcare has been smashT in every election and will keep being ownT wenever it is put b4 da voters. get a fukin clue s0n.

# posted by  Anonymous : 1:32 PM

 

So you're saying we should smash the socialized military we have? I find it refreshing that you can come out against both a system where everyone pays the government to defend us from foriegn enemies and one where we all pay the government to defend us from foriegn pathogens.

I think it's not very supportive of our troops though. What with you wanting to fire them and all.

# posted by  Tommaso Sciortino : 4:19 PM

 

i'm willing to pay da government for national defense. im not willing to pay for bums healthcare. dun need to, i can pay for my own smashT

get a fukin clue.

"socialist crushT"

# posted by  Anonymous : 6:34 PM

 

SmashTism: The political philosphy that government actions should be confined to that which SmashT approves of.

Do you have actual political opinions or are you just meant to discredit conservatives by making them sound like 2nd grade comic book henchmen?

Keep up the good work!

# posted by  Tommaso Sciortino : 5:46 PM

 

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