Who’s chasing ambulances now?
Personal injury attorneys who abuse the legal system regard lawsuits the way venture capitalists treat startups. Both expect 19 in 20 investments to fail. But among their portfolio of losers, there’s that one successful moonshot. Think of Peter Thiel’s 2004 investment in Facebook of $500,000 that turned into billions. One jackpot not only covers the costs of the 19 flops, but also swells the bottom line.
The difference between the VC lottery and legal lottery is that when lawyers win, the general public loses. The immediate problem is that millions in damages must be paid. The cost is passed onto the consumer one way or the other; businesses go bankrupt. The long-term problem is that winning law firms receive an infusion of capital to expand operations. For an entity in the business of producing lawsuits, expanded operations means churning out more lawsuits (and hitting more jackpots). Tort reform advocates fear that this cycle feeds a growing monster that will eventually devour everything.
Today I was reading about another ethically-challenged industry that has experienced its own windfall profits. It dwarfs anything the legal profession has accomplished.
According to the Brownstone Institute, the federal government spent more than $10 trillion on the response to COVID. And there were some big winners: “Despite being semi-mothballed for an extended period, hospitals made record profits of $20 billion from Covid relief. Pharma companies have made at least $100 billion from the failed vaxxes. And Gates-owned Gilead, which made the Remdesivir that many blame for hospital deaths, cashed in big time.”
If lawyers use their jackpot winnings to produce more lawsuits, what can we now expect Big Medicine to produce more of?
Pandemic Hysteria
First, anticipate more formalized and aggressive platforms that specialize in pandemic publicity. The voices trying to restart COVID mania are doing it precisely because it’s good for business.
Poor Health
I asked ChatGPT what hospital systems can do with more money. The chatbot tool recommended: more equipment, more research, more staff. I see.
Health care spending is already at an all-time high, accounting for one-fifth of the U.S. economy. Within a decade, Medicare alone is expected to consume more than 4 percent of the U.S. economy each year.
What is the output from this stupendous therapeutic extravaganza? 93% of Americans are not metabolically healthy, and over a third of U.S. adults have prediabetes. More than 1-in-10 Americans have diabetes.
AI also made this suggestion: “Hospitals could develop and support initiatives that promote healthy lifestyles and disease prevention in the community.” Presumably we’re talking about lifestyle initiatives promoting … less red meat, less sun, less salt, more grains, more seed oils, more pointless tests, more vaccines, more unnecessary procedures.
Biotyranny
I don’t need ChatGPT to know what Big Pharma does with more money. They fund lawmaking that grinds up the public between government-mandated vaccinations for school and work, and vaccine manufacturer immunity from liability. More money also means more direct-to-consumer advertising of dubious treatments, more Big Pharma influence over media, more domination of regulatory agencies.
Advocates of free will fear that this cycle feeds a growing monster that will eventually devour everything.