5 ms·
Amazing review. > the cost of the U.S. tort system consumes about two percent of GDP, on average. If we assume this mostly started around 1980 when lawyers sk
by sam_goody 6y ago
Amazing review.
> the cost of the U.S. tort system consumes about two percent of GDP, on average. If we assume this mostly started around 1980 when lawyers skyrocketed... without it our economy today would be twice the size it actually is... more than a million of the country’s most talented and motivated people [are] filing briefs against each other... instead of inventing, developing, and manufacturing things which could have made life better.
This is the best way to describe the patent system.
I know a company that advertises help for people that have inventions. I spoke to them once, and they advised me to take a patent, bury it, and then sue the next guy who develops a similar item, as it is more lucrative and less risky than developing a product and then fighting whoever else has created a similar enough product that they can sue me.
> One, the success of industrial civilization at meeting everyone’s basic needs for food, clothing and shelter pushed people up Maslow’s Hierarchy to seek self-actualization, which they did in the form of social activism.
Take a look at the "Rats of NIMH"[1]. When a society becomes well to do enough, a percentage will start to identify themselves by identifying and destroying what they immaturely assume to be wrong in others without understanding the advantages of mutual understanding.
(slightly off topic, but IMO "woke", "cancel culture", "white supremacy" and most other vigilante all fall in that category. There are definitely things that should fought against, but democracy has mature ways of fighting about ideas that were learnt the hard way and forgotten easily.)
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-doomed-mouse-utopia-that-inspired-the-rats-of-nimh https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-doomed-mouse-utopi...
- qayxc 6y agoI really wish people would finally stop posting the "Mouse Utopia" experiments in conjunction with any context that involves human society. Not only do the experiments tell very little about mice and their behaviour (other than that non-species-appropriate husbandry conditions will lead to degeneration and death), they are in no way shape or form transferable to humans. You can skip the whole flawed mouse experiment and just look at any industrial meat, egg or pelt production or even many zoos - same difference. The animals suffer, display behavioural disorders and often won't procreate. Just ask any zoo how difficult it is to get certain animals to breed in captivity - with some it's even thought to be impossible (cheetahs are a prominent example). So please, for love of Zeus stop with the "Mouse Utopia" already!
- sbierwagen 6y agoThere is also something of a question if Universe 25 actually collapsed, or what happened in the previous 24 universes. Calhoun never published anything besides popsci summaries of his experiments: https://www.gwern.net/Questions#mouse-utopia https://www.gwern.net/Questions#mouse-utopia
- gnopgnip 6y ago>If we assume this mostly started around 1980 when lawyers skyrocketed... without it our economy today would be twice the size it actually is This is a flawed assumption. You would need to look at the cost of the alternative. If we had drastically fewer lawyers and judges we wouldn't have a utopia where everyone follows the rules
- howlgarnish 6y agoThe US has 13x more lawyers than capita per Japan. Which country is better known for everyone following the rules? https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-263B-7182 https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-263B-7182
- crooked-v 6y ago> well to do enough The 'rat utopia' in those experiments is actually a dystopia: plenty of food, sure, but you've got a large population crammed into a small space with nothing to keep them occupied. That's not 'well to do'... it's cheap welfare block housing with no employment available.