From: Greg Burch (gregburch@gregburch.net)
Date: Sun Mar 31 2002 - 16:23:14 MST
Well, this'll teach me to keep my mouth shut and just lurk when I don't
have time to get involved in a discussion. But I felt honor-bound to
make a couple of comments on Forrest's message.
> From: Forrest Bishop
> Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2002 2:04 PM
> Most, but by no means all, lawyers are involved in zero or
> negative-sum games; helping some at the expense of others.
> Stephen Magee (University of Texas), among others, has
> compiled some regression analyses by county. The higher per
> capita lawyer count, the lower the economic growth. It
> shouldn't be too hard to see why this is so.
I was unfamiliar with Magee, although a bit of googling indicates that
he wrote an article -- apparently unavailable on the Web -- that was
quoted by advocates of "tort reform" (and some much less savory folks:
http://christianparty.net/lawyers.htm). I can't see his data, but I
wonder how it would compare, say, Vietnam's or Madagascar's number of
lawyers with the economic growth of those countries. People always
point to places like Japan or Northern European countries when they want
to make this point. But I always ask in return: 1) how culturally and
ethnically diverse are those countries compared to the United States,
and 2) how free are individuals in those countries -- both culturally
and legally -- to experiment and fail? When you get a very free and
very diverse population, there's no substitute for the rule of law, and
the rule of law in such societies necessitates a high number of lawyers.
(My "scare quotes" around the term "tort reform" are intended to convey
the deep ambivalence I harbor about the motivations of many tort
reformers and the reality of the effect of the reforms they have managed
to enact into law. I am a strong advocate of some of the things tort
reformers have sought to do, but have come to conclude that much of
their underlying motivation and a large part of their actual political
and legal expression is misguided. I wrote quite a bit about this
subject here four or five years ago, so won't go into it now.)
> > He's not hung up on earning big bucks, but wants something with a
> > strong job market.
>
> The US already has the highest per-capita percentage of
> lawyers in the world. The market is beyond satruated. Note
> that the US also has the highest incarceration rate in the
> world and in history (The American Gulag), probably the most
> number of "laws" (this one is hard to quantify) and an
> increasingly litigious population. We need more lawyers like
> we more cancer. No offense intended, just the facts, sir.
I don't take offense, because these views are, unfortunately, widespread
and I can't afford to be offended by common opinions. And, of course,
the facts you point to are real. The causal connection, though, is
subject to serious debate.
A couple of final points. First, when someone breaches a contract with
you, who you gonna call? Finally, please know that I wouldn't wish a
life in the law on anyone who didn't already have an inclination in that
direction and real talent for it.
Greg Burch
Vice-President, Extropy Institute
http://www.gregburch.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:13:10 MST