The Revolution: Part 2

[Phantomgrift]

What is your take on the malpractice bit in the first place?
A large part of why they skyrocketed was the growing number of people who would try to sue their doctor for "malpractice" at the drop of a stubbed toe.

[Despanan]

Our society is increasingly letigeous in general - which I think may be due to our post-industrial economy. People don't build or make anything in America anymore, intstead we trade in services and information.

Meanwhile the middle class has disappeared over the last 40 or 50 years - the poor have grown & the rich have shrunk and the remaining rich have had their fortunes expand exponentially. There's less and less opportunity every year.

So - in my opinion the rise in malpractice lawsuits can be attributed to 3 things on the macro level:

1) poverty and the rising cost of healthcare

2) advertising. As people have less money the advertisers have to step up their game to keep people buying shit they can't afford. This means product placement in every TV show. This means fetishized lifestyles being promoted by the media. This means materialism and vapidity. And it also means;

3) Debt. Seriously - it's growing out of control. Since there's less money and less security & since banks were treating loans not as a service - but as the raw capital to generate their profits via CDOs and Credit Default Swaps - you have a recipient for living off loans that can never be repaid.

So - the American dream is dead. People are working longer hours at crappier jobs for less pay and vanishing benefits. They're being constantly bombarded by advertisements for whit they can't own and they have a very uncertain future where they can't hope to be self sufficient. Then they get sick and they're buried under MORE bills...so what can they do?

They sue a rich person with the hopes of reaping enough benefits to at least temporarily stabalize their situation. Doctors are largely assumed to be rich and they're the only rich sector that the poor end up interacting with.

Then - if they win - they're suddenly flush with cash. Whatdo they buy? ALL THE SHIT EVERYONE HAS BEEN TELLING THEM THEY NEED TO BE HAPPY. It's no coincidence that lower class people become obsessed with buying flashy cars - shoes - jewlery. Temporary frivolous shit like that provides short - term releif from the hopelessness of their situation.

[HisDivineShadow]

Huh. That's actually a really good point. Our culture wouldn't be so invested in getting rich quick through lawsuits if the poor didn't have so few opportunities to get rich via more legitimate means.

[dexeron]

Speaking of which: down the street from where I live:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=who+can+i ... 3,,3,-5.14

[Phantomgrift]

I will only contest a bit Desp in regards to the "sudden influx" of cash aspect.

It's not a matter of "what they've been told/programmed to buy".
Extensive studies have been done to discern why some people do well with large amounts of cash, and why others pretty much self-implode when they come into any amount of wealth.

It's actually a critical factor between corporate CEO-types that manage their money effectively, and Hollywood entertainer or athlete types. Tying in right with people who have won large amounts in the lottery or families from wealthy backgrounds.

Numerous factors affect the outcome: What economical background they came from, how they were raised in regards to money or possessions. Even certain psychological aspects play a part.

That's one that really cant be boiled down to: "They have money and blow it because the MAW tells them they need "X" to be happy."
I actually find certain stories pretty fascinating when it comes to lottery winners. And the most successful "sue-happy" stories are, almost alarmingly so, people that have basically made a living drawing up lawsuits against corporations and individuals for various reasons. A number of them are honest cases wherein the receiving party deserved to be sued. A bunch of the cases outline someone that in a different light would be a straight up con man or scam artist.

Interestingly enough, the largest amount of "frivolous" shit is usually purchased by celebrities and those born into money.
Look at the largest purchasers of say, "H2Bling". For up to 2,000 dollars a case, you to can drink bottled water that has Swarovski crystals embedded in the lid. That's it. Apparently very popular with the Hollywood crowd and Paris Hilton.

For 300 dollars, you can own "Excess". A small case of 30 pills. These pills are water-soluble and filled with nothing more than gold leaf flakes. You take them... And have gold in your poop. That's it. For whatever reason, they are very popular amongst the rap/hip-hob/R&B crowd.

I'm reminded of the song "Read A Book".
That highlights the mentality a little better than simply "influx of cash makes people go crazy".
Culture, social aspects, peers, etc. lead to situations where as a cry of common sense, one of the lines is: "Buy some land! Buy some land! Fuck Spinning Rims!"

[Sorce]

Yeah, if you've never actually had money, you're going to burn through it if you suddenly get a large amount because you're not experienced in money management for the long term.

[Phantomgrift]

Well, the studies I was looking at did correlate with that one... To a certain degree.
A lot of lottery winners don't have the foresight to handle the cash because they aren't used to that much money, and in many cases, treat the cash as though it's a bottomless well instead of a finite resource that will eventually run out.

However, that didn't account for the fact that, again, certain celebrities, athletes and inheritance kids are some of the worst offenders when it comes to buying paltry crap that you didn't even know existed. Watching a few episodes (for as long as I could stomach them) of MTV's "Cribs" highlighted this routinely. Some rapper talking about the massive walk-in closet for the 200+ pairs of shoes he had.

That's not as easily explained as "Society deemed it so, so they spent."
I think a lot of it ties into the personal aspect of character and personality. Just try watching five minutes of "My Sweet 16" and listening to some princess twat crying because mommy and daddy bought her the wrong color of car.

Some of it is decidedly cultural and social changes.
This was highlighted by an article in a Business Monthly I was reading that was espousing the issues of hiring certain generations. IE. Our great-grandparents age group went through hardships and depression and therefor locked onto the value of a dollar. When you had cash, you kept it. When you had a job, you maintained loyalty to that job until you died or they sent you on your way with a handshake and a cheap gold watch.
Baby-Boomers brought a new level of asking what the company could provide for them to a certain degree, IE, certain benefits, vacation, etc.
Both still viewed the job as a place where the boss or the company had ultimate sway and what he said usually went because they were the boss.

Gen-X'ers? Millennials? New demographic coming from a "Just Do It" generation of the eighties and instant gratification in everything from electronics to food-services, etc. Ergo, they hire onto a job and they want to know what they'll get out of it. Leadership is no longer a boss in an officer, they want someone right alongside them to literally "prove" that they deserve the respect of the employees.

Something of that nature trickles into the money situation.
Older generations knew hardship, knew strife, realized the proper part of planning for a rainy day. Younger generations didn't have as many of the hardships to shape their thinking in that manner.

Consider the aspect of war and disaster. Older generations went through times that shaped the nation and the society. World War I, World War II, The Great Depression, The Cold War, Vietnam, etc. The eighties and the nineties? For all intents and purposes, those were the longest periods of relative peacetime the United States has ever seen. This is reflected in generations born and raised in that timeframe.

Even to contrast myself. I was born in the late seventies and grew up during the eighties. I had a large family and a Air Force father. Money wasn't horribly tight, but between my parents, I learned what it meant to shop smart, save your cash, invest, plan for purchases and determine what you did or didn't need. I grew up with a old Atari and Intellivision and didn't have my own system until I purchased my own Playstation after leaving home. Thanks to my dad being a electrical nerd, I did have a home-computer on hand.

My jaw hit the floor when I was in my late teens and we visited one of my dads coworkers. Their six-year-old son had two tv's, three game systems and a computer in his room alone. Different generation, different mindset.

I've watched my spending capability increase as the years have gone by and my paycheck has risen with my promotions. But I'll still hem and haw over major purchases. Yet I've got a junior sailor that I had to sit down and have an earnest talk with over his cash. Kid was in his early twenties, an E4, married, with a baby on the way... And he was hard-up for how he wanted to buy himself a new BMW. It took me and another E6 to outline how that was kind of foolish, especially considering the price of an oil change alone for a BMW is expensive and specialized. Even though he finally came around, he initially didn't consider those things. He was of a generational mindset that said: "I want a BMW, so I can get a BMW." with no correlation between instant purchase and long-term planning.

[Despanan]

[dexeron]

[Despanan]

Dex ++

In a society like contemporary America frugality and work ethic pretty much translate into: work harder for the priviledges of others and be content with less.

And God help you if you get sick - because the folks at the top certainly won't.