Dirty Capitalists Exposed by Greg Palast Now Suing The London Observer.

July 6, 2001 4:35 PM

Dirty Capitalists Exposed by Greg Palast Now Suing The London Observer. Apparently millionaires can't hang with the idea that when they do something very bad, watchdog groups and government agencies publicize, investigate, castigate and punish their very bad deeds. So what do they do? They enlist judiciary branches of government to see to it that profits remain intact. We could call this Round II in a sense.
posted by crasspastor (3 comments total)

Or maybe I should have left the Round II part out. Didn't realize that'd invoke the presumably steer-clear dis-attention! ; )

Heckle me in Metatalk if you must. . .
posted by crasspastor at 6:33 PM on July 6, 2001

Here I come BACK to learn a little more and to share my ideas and observation with you guys.

Apparently this is a sad story, not really bleeding edge news because that happened before and to many other guys who are ..maybe.."just a little bit curious".

I don't know the details of this affair, so I'll not comment on who's right and who's wrong ; but I tend to believe the journalist when he says he has little power to fight back in court. It's no secret lawyers are expensive and that pro-bono lawyers aren't found on every street corner.

I'm not a lawyer, but I understand law enough to tell you that, without any doubts, the way the law system is done favors the ones who can afford to sue,contersue, counter-counter sue and pay hi profile lawyers and so on.

It is also true that , sometimes, even poor people win in court ; and when they do and receive loads of money in compensation I wonder how much of this money really goes to them and how much to lawyer.

I also wonder why I've never seen once in my life the media reporting about counter-sue results ; maybe because they aren't hot news anymore ?


Let's start...

Any system, considered as combination of organized elements that were organized to achieve one objective, doesn't reach 100% efficiency.

Why ? Because 100% efficiency is only theorical, It doesn't exist in real world.

BUT..you can achieve 99% efficiency. How ? By fine-tuning the system and by giving it ALMOST ALL it needs to work "almost perfectly".

That is probably true for any system and for law system.

Here comes my first point..

1) If it's true that the law system is so complex that only few professional really understand it and can use it to its full extent (read EXPERT lawyers)

2) If it's true that experts can be hired for relatively high amounts on money

3) if it's true that expert that works for free (pro-bono) are not as many as professionals that want to be paid.

A) Then anybody who has more money to hire more expertise has higher chances to win in court then the one who doesn't have as much as money.

-----

Now..wasn't the law system supposed to be equally accessible by everybody ? If that's true then..

1) anybody should be able, regardless of the amount of money he owns, to access the law system ( that really happens because if you can't pay a lawyer one will be assigned to you, usually crappy because the good ones are working for much better money)

Now, combine two elements :

1) law system can work without money, but can not be completely exploited, thanks to its complexity, if one doesn't have enough money to hire experts working on his side

2) law system is accessible even without money, but the chances of winning in court are again somehow related to money.


What you get is...

Law system needs money to work. Money is the "oil" or "fuel" of law system. Without it, it less then optimally efficient.

STOP for a second. I'm not assuming money is THE ONLY THING law system needs to work. It also needs law abiding judges and a bunch of other things.

Now...ehehe..you were waiting for it..here i am.

WHAT if you live in a system that favors wealth accumulation BUT only in the hands of FEW ones ?

Let's call it capitalism, but you could also call it comunism it doesn't matter.

You tell me what you think..what are your chances if your work at 7-11 ? What if you're the CEO of some big big company ? And WHY does law system allows CHANCES ?

You tell me :D
posted by elpapacito at 6:52 PM on July 6, 2001

Didn't anybody actually find this thread worth their time to comment? Or did it go unnoticed on a slow mefi day? I've made no argument at all and have gotten chastised for it. Here I post the most loaded of links and nothing happens. What gives?
posted by crasspastor at 2:39 AM on July 9, 2001