Nicely following my topic of people getting screwed by ChoicePoint and probably with no effective recourse comes Just a cost of doing business, an article by Jeff Kaplan. In it Jeff Kaplan points out that Bush's recent bill to restrict class action suits by private citizens has further swung the pendulum of unequal protection in further in the direction of corporations. Bush told us that this bill was necessary to prevent frivilous lawsuits hurting businesses and damaging our economy.

Of course when Bush says "businesses" he is always quick to frame that as "small businesses" of the mom and pop kind. Approximates 80% of all businesses are sole proprietorships or partnerships, the rest are corporations, however 95% of all revenue comes from the big corporations. So while appealing to the "small business sector" Bush manages to appeal the the maximum number of people with the minimum of economic effect. We can all associate with those small guys, well all know a small business and a great number of people own one of some kind.

But the problem is, according to Kaplan recent studies have shown its the corporations, not people and small businesses, who are 160 times more likely to sue, and even worse they are 69% more likely than a regular person to be chastized for launching a frivilous suit.

So, did the Bush bill address frivilous lawsuits by corporations too? Hell no! The truth is by restricting suits by people but not corporations (who actually claim to be people when it suits them) Bush was able to create a lot of noise and smoke without the actual fire that might damage the huge profits made by legal companies that prop up our so called democracy.

And so it came to pass that the people got screwed, and the corporatiosn ruled - again.

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