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Radio talk show host Dennis Prager has been lauded by political activists of all beliefs as an intelligent and persuasive writer. One a teacher of...
Read more about Dennis Prager.
Radio talk show host Dennis Prager has been lauded by political activists of all beliefs as an intelligent and persuasive writer. One a teacher of...
Read more about Dennis Prager.
A Society that Venerates Lawyers More than Doctors
Dennis Prager
Those of us who are not true believers in expanded government are
certain of the following:
If the 1,990-page House Health Care Bill becomes law, the average American will receive worse health care, American physicians will decline in status and income, American medical innovation will dramatically slow down and pharmaceutical discoveries will decline in number and quality. And, of course, the economy of the United States will deteriorate, perhaps permanently.
However, we are also certain that there is one American group that will thrive -- trial lawyers. The very existence of a 1,990-page law guarantees years of, if not more or less permanent, lawsuits. And the law actually specifies that states that do not limit attorneys' fees in cases of medical malpractice shall be financially rewarded.
What we are seeing here, therefore, is something unprecedented in our history: Many trial lawyers will earn as much as most physicians, and fewer and fewer physicians will earn as much as successful trial lawyers.
Nothing better illustrates the reorientation -- indeed, the transformation -- of values that will take place if the Democrats' health care legislation is passed. Thanks to trial lawyer/Democratic influence, for decades, we have been moving in the direction of litigation-based society. But with a Democratic health care bill, the movement will accelerate exponentially.
Much of our money, our innovation, our creativity and our ingenuity will gravitate from medicine to law.
Young people who wish to make a good living -- and even talk themselves into believing that they are also doing good for society -- will opt for trial law over medicine. As far back as memory goes for living Americans, a young person who wished to do well, as well as do good in life, would likely choose medicine as a profession if he were bright enough and willing to put in the great number of hours necessary.
In the last generation, many of the brightest chose finance -- as it turned out, another often unproductive and often destructive arena -- to make a lot of money while believing that they, too, were doing a lot of good for society.
With the financial professions in trouble and in some disrepute, and medicine being financially and socially devalued -- doctors are increasingly called "health care providers" (along with nurses, physician's assistants, lab technicians, etc.; they're all the same) -- law, especially trial law, will be seen as offering the most opportunities for making a great deal of money.
No rational person argues that society doesn't need law or lawyers, or that all lawyers, even trial lawyers, do no good. That is certainly not what is being argued here.
But it does say something about a society when those who sue physicians and hospitals make as much or more money than those who heal disease. It says something about a society when it glorifies and rewards those who litigate while it demonizes and punishes those who produce the drugs and devices that keep its citizens alive and well.
This is part of the upside-down world the left is bequeathing to us and our children in the name of health care "reform."
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Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated radio talk show and is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author of four books, most recently "Happiness Is a Serious Problem" (HarperCollins). His website is www.dennisprager.com.
Copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 11/03/2009
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Posted Comments:
11-05-2009 17:09
JCE wrote:
The lawyers will hold their special place as long as America reveres money more than anything else. Why do you think the Christians really began to hate the Jews? Because of the usury thing. Money has become our nations god, and the people who deal in, control, or manipulate money are its profits. And lawyers can really help you rape a country, a person, or a business. I mean people are going to be sick, and die, but come on, a person who can make you rich? That is the American mentality. We have developed the Asian lack of interest in life.
11-05-2009 06:22
wrote:
First we kill all the Lawyers.
11-03-2009 16:58
JCE wrote:
While Prager actually has one or two true things in here, it is his usual right wing nonsense. First, this isn't a democrat bill, it is a bipartisan bill, and has too much insurance goodies to ignore the republican amendments that water it down, and compromise it. Having a basically 2000 page bill is a bipartisan agreement for enacting BS legislation. It is like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka. Wrong way to go. This bill should be at least 3 bills, each no bigger than 100 pages, if that. If you cut out all the compromises, republican amendments to help the insurance companies, the pork, the bribes, and just focused on 1 important thing for each bill, you could do just that. But it is the whole country, who worships money, not life, who values money more than life or health, that is responsible for the putting lawyers on a pedestal. And only the voters can choose to elect politicians who cater to those lawyers, and special interests. As they continue to do, and by the threats of voting republican in the next elections, obviously more people do support the money over life bit.
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