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By turns funny and infuriating, this startling book dissects the dogmas of fairness that allow self-interested individuals to bully the rest of society. Philip K. Howard explains how, trying to honor individual rights, we removed the authority needed to maintain a free society. Teachers don’t even have authority to maintain order in the classroom. With no one in charge, the safe course is to avoid any possible risk. Seesaws and diving boards are removed. Ridiculous warning labels litter the American landscape: “Caution: Contents Are Hot.”
Striving to protect “individual rights,” we ended up losing much of our freedom. When almost any decision that someone disagrees with is a possible lawsuit, no one knows where he stands. A huge monument to the unknown plaintiff looms high above America, casting a dark shadow across our daily choices. Today, in the land of free speech, you’d have to be a fool to say what you really think.
This provocative book not only attacks the sacred cows of political correctness, but takes a breathtakingly bold stand on how to reinvigorate our common good. Only by restoring personal authority can schools begin to work again. Only by judges and legislatures taking back the authority to decide who can sue for what can doctors feel comfortable using their best judgment and American be liberated to say and do what they know is right. Lucid, honest, and hard hitting, The Collapse of the Common Good shows how Americans can bring back freedom and common sense to a society disabled by lawyers and legal fear.
"The double slide in Oologah, Oklahoma, donated to the town park by the Kiwanis Club, was a local landmark." Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most of the book's content looks at education, government service, racial discrimination in companies, and bureaucratic rules everywhere. The point of reference is the current state of legal thinking, which upholds having a "neutral" judiciary that deals with disputes. Unfortunately, a lot of silly suits are started. One of my favorite examples in the book involved a dispute between two three-year-olds in a sandbox in a public park in Boston. A judge took the case and issued a temporary restraining order keeping the two kids apart. The other problem is that juries can make up ridiculous awards, both for the primary injury and for punitive damages. Everyone by now knows the story of the elderly woman who collected over $600,000 for hot coffee she spilled on herself after picking it up in a drive-through at McDonald's. But did you know about the guy whose new car had had its paint touched up, and initially got a punitive damage award of $1,000 for each car that had been touched up to paid to him?
One of the things I liked most about the book was the way Mr. Howard tied all of this in to modern ideas about how organizations work best, which is to give those on the spot lots of autonomy to make choices and use their judgment. Otherwise, you get the tyranny of looking at optimizing one area (avoiding legal suits) while suboptimizing the whole area (providing education, government services, or products to customers). He has several examples of teachers and principals who made a difference by doing what needed to be done, regardless of the potential for suits.
The book's weakness is that it basically encourages those who may be sued to take a chance anyway. You may be sued, but you will be helping. I agree that in many cases there will be no suits, but to the family who goes bankrupt as a result of an ensuing suit that advice provides little solace.
I think he is really describing a society that wants to have a chance to win the lottery -- being injured gives you a chance to get billions! Well, maybe thousands in reality. When the bulk of society wants to have that chance, you have to assume that the laws will favor providing that free run in court with a lawyer who gets paid a contigent fee.
If we are willing to give up on our "right" to win the law suit lottery, we can have a more effective society. Are we ready for that?
On the other hand, we shouldn't throw out the right to sue. Many times, there's no other remedy available.
Balancing these needs is something that we have to hope our legislators will become better at accomplishing. This book should help raise the alarm. But you will do more good by writing letters explaining your views to your legislators than this book can hope to accomplish.
Most of the book's content looks at education, government service, racial discrimination in companies, and bureaucratic rules everywhere. The point of reference is the current state of legal thinking, which upholds having a "neutral" judiciary that deals with disputes. Unfortunately, a lot of silly suits are started. One of my favorite examples in the book involved a dispute between two three-year-olds in a sandbox in a public park in Boston. A judge took the case and issued a temporary restraining order keeping the two kids apart. The other problem is that juries can make up ridiculous awards, both for the primary injury and for punitive damages. Everyone by now knows the story of the elderly woman who collected over $600,000 for hot coffee she spilled on herself after picking it up in a drive-through at McDonald's. But did you know about the guy whose new car had had its paint touched up, and initially got a punitive damage award of $1,000 for each car that had been touched up to paid to him?
One of the things I liked most about the book was the way Mr. Howard tied all of this in to modern ideas about how organizations work best, which is to give those on the spot lots of autonomy to make choices and use their judgment. Otherwise, you get the tyranny of looking at optimizing one area (avoiding legal suits) while suboptimizing the whole area (providing education, government services, or products to customers). He has several examples of teachers and principals who made a difference by doing what needed to be done, regardless of the potential for suits.
The book's weakness is that it basically encourages those who may be sued to take a chance anyway. You may be sued, but you will be helping. I agree that in many cases there will be no suits, but to the family who goes bankrupt as a result of an ensuing suit that advice provides little solace.
I think he is really describing a society that wants to have a chance to win the lottery -- being injured gives you a chance to get billions! Well, maybe thousands in reality. When the bulk of society wants to have that chance, you have to assume that the laws will favor providing that free run in court with a lawyer who gets paid a contigent fee.
If we are willing to give up on our "right" to win the law suit lottery, we can have a more effective society. Are we ready for that?
On the other hand, we shouldn't throw out the right to sue. Many times, there's no other remedy available.
Balancing these needs is something that we have to hope our legislators will become better at accomplishing. This book should help raise the alarm. But you will do more good by writing letters explaining your views to your legislators than this book can hope to accomplish.
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