Litigation is destroying American companies.

• Author: Bailey, Glenn W.

A SURVEY that was conducted by a congressman among his constituents showed that, while most of them were concerned deeply about the economy, very few seemed to be worked up about America's competitiveness, even though competitive superiority in the world made the US. prosperous. The economy depends on it. Americans take US. manufacturing superiority for granted. However, the country is losing it, and litigation is one of the big reasons why.

Litigation impedes productivity. Forty-seven percent of the nation's manufacturers threw in the towel on some product they were making or planning to produce because lawyers have a chance to sue over a customer misusing the product or improperly handling it. Losses due to litigation might be endless, explaining why 25% of manufacturers discontinued some forms of product research and 15% laid off workers. Americans have forgotten that their rights are dependent on the willingness to take responsibility for their actions.

Compare Japanese and American cultures. The Japanese are motivated by a cooperative system that benefits all. A struggle for power in the Japanese culture is paramount. He who has the power, has the right.

Now look at Americans. They all ought to be proud of their individual rights, but, somewhere over the past decade or two, one's responsibility for his or her actions has been forgotten. People now look at power and perceive it as immoral. Americans say power works against the average person. How did that attitude come about? It's partly because we are becoming a nation of crybabies and busybodies, as an August, 1991, article in Time magazine stated.

Individuals forget their responsibilities, demand rights and entitlements, blame others for their problems, and don't want to pay for what happens to them as a result of their own actions. Lawyers exploit these trends and become rich. A number of them are obscenely greedy. As a result, the American civil justice system is breaking down, businesses are becoming less competitive, and jobs are disappearing.

What exists today is a lawsuit lottery that leads to legalized extortion. Lawyers feed on the "entitlement generation" to create panic over asbestos and other products. Attorneys blame the suppliers of the products despite the fact that warnings on packages were ignored by workers, their unions, and their employers. Lawyers wrongly claim that suppliers were concerned about profits over people. They preach that they are taking from rich...