TheSolidSurfer.com Interview at The Beak Speaks

Dear Readers,

In lieu of a regular post today, I sat in the "hot seat" for an interview at a fantastic blog called The Beak Speaks. Here is the link to Beak's interview questions; scroll down to the comments section (below the main post) for my answers.

Of particular note, Question #6 asks what foreign countries are vital to America's economic future, and I replied China, India, Brazil and Mexico, with a brief explanation concerning retiring baby boomers and their upcoming need to find younger buyers for their accumulated assets. This is an important issue that all Americans should become aware of, and I'd like to credit the man responsible for the insight, Dr. Jeremy Siegel of the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, this article well explains the situation.

Thanks, and hope you enjoy the interview.
-TheSolidSurfer.com

Comments

[Mini Me]

Great Job Solid Surfer!

[nanc]

you did a fine job, surfer - a fine job indeed. i hope you'll be there for the beamish roast - i've been searching the archives of mbc for some classic beamishisms and there are plenty. i still have mbc in my favorites - boo hoo sob...

[Beakerkin]

I am really sorry about the Freudian slip with the Silver Surfer. Amazingly I am getting actual hits on my site meter for the Silver Surfer. He apparently still has a huge following.

It was an excellent interview and number six was the key question. I may have to do a larger post on that subject in the future.

[Verdant]

Hi Surfer:

Your interview was a good one. The tort reform question is a lot easier for me than it is for you, however. We need tort reform badly in the U.S. It's clear that other developed countries do not have the number of lawsuits our society permits. The dramatic difference in the number is asimple but reasonable approximation of how many frivolous lawsuits are filed by even mainstream class action lawyers.

Here's a situation where a prominent class action lawyer (the Enron lawyer!) hired an individual to be the actual plaintiff in 50 different securities cases! Can you imagine...the same individual experiencing losses by managers in publicly traded companies on 50 separate occasions!!! http://blog.kir.com/archives/002119.asp
Here's another - where a prominent asbestos attorney turned silicosis attorney used the same individuals in his silicosis cases as he did in his asbestos cases! Think about it...thousands of "injured parties" overlapped - yet the diseases aren't related!!! Plus, the doctors diagnosing the "silicosis illnesses" did not examine the patients!!! http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3250040.html These types of cases result in, for example, U.S. citizens not being able to procure silicone breast implants in the U.S. even though they are safe and available everywhere else in the world! How can something like that happen??? Simple...judges let juries decide cases even where no scientific evidence exists for the plaintiff's assertion.

These situations act as a huge tax assessed against U.S. businesses, and indirectly, against U.S. investors and workers. Equally as important is the lack of productivity the plaintiffs bar experiences, as its successes merely distribute money from U.S, businesses and their shareholders to selected "injured" constituants. Nothing is produced or created by this process - it is pure and simple redistribution!

Sure, there are real injuries and real injured parties. However our system should incentivise plaintiffs to ferret out the real cases and pursue them. Our current system incentivises plaintifs to sue for anything and then settle. Let's change the incentives.

[Solid Surfer]

Thanks everyone, glad you liked the interview! And thanks again to Beak for hosting it!

[Solid Surfer]

Verdant - those are some really good points; the incentives to sue frivolously definitely should be changed. Certainly there are many legitimate court cases, but we need a system that protects those while discouraging outrageous lawsuits.

One piece of good news from the healthcare industry that I've heard is that if a doctor makes a mistake, all they have to do is offer a genuine apology and the patient will rarely sue. (A study was doen on it.)However, if the doctor does nothing and/or gets defensive about it, the lawsuits will often fly. Reversing the ultra-litigousness of our society will of coruse take more than this, but it sounds like a good step in the right direction.

[Mr. Beamish the Instablepundit]

The Silver Surfer is bad ass, despite his reluctance to show just how bad ass he is. But that's neither here nor there.

[Abe]

Surfer,

I enjoyed your interview. I think Russia and China are both bad news in the not too distant future. These countries could care less about human rights and are only after power.

[Solid Surfer]

Abe, I agree, I was actually thinking about it some more, and I even think Russia might be a greater long-term threat, because China has been moving somewhat towards the direction of freedom, whereas Russia is backsliding and is corrupted by oil.

[Solid Surfer]

Hi Beamish...sounds like the Silver Surfer is a pretty neat comic...will have to check it out!