Dear friends,
It seems to me that Chaos is money. That is an old saying in the telecommunications industry, many others too, I assume.
What it means is that when management creates chaos. (In the methods and practices or in the plant itself). This chaos requires the intercession of a technician. That technician then spends a huge amount of time sitting on hold, usually on overtime, or struggling to make the unworkable work, again, on overtime. Whenever this is the case gobs of overtime money is earned. So despite the complaining and grousing about the chaos created by mismanagement and incompetent engineering, the technician would be better advised to promote chaos.
Of course it isn’t in his or her long term interests to promote mismanagement and incompetent engineering, because the company would eventually go under, and the corrupt employee would loose his or her job and pencion. But the corrupt employee that sees it this way is no different than the lawyer or judge that “finds” a loophole in a contract. They promote chaos in the legal system. Thus putting their personal best interests and the interests of their faction above society as a whole.
Loopholes are simply a means by which a party to the contract can be “legally” corrupt. In most contracts, even if they must be broken down into flow diagrams, can be summed up pretty succinctly. Understood by both parties the contract is implemented. But reams of paper must be made out and signed for a modern contract to be implemented to insure the virtue of both parties. When one or the other party’s interests has changed, and it is no longer in his or her interest to fulfill their part of the contract, they bring in a lawyer.
So attorneys give the corrupt a leg up on the virtuous. And as a result are the defense of the virtuous against the vulgarities of the corrupt. Sowing chaos, then “fixing” it, is the role of the modern “advocate”.
Well, you might say, everyone sees problems but what do you propose to do about it?
I think that it may be too late in the USA to really fix the underlying problem. But in a newly forming republic it would be easy to insure the problem doesn’t crop up. Or at least is minimized.
The underlying problem in the USA is that law is adjudicated as “letter of the law”, and as Confucius’s disciple said, “people will argue to the head of a pin that the law doesn’t apply to them.” By enforcing “definition or terms” rather than “honesty of intentions or general gist” lawyers insure that chaos will reign.
First of all it is patently impossible to foresee every possible way in which a person could break a law or “find” a loophole in a contract. The attempt has resulted in enough paper to orbit the Earth and block the sun. With no end in sight in the growth of this behemoth, where it will go, and what it wil consume, is far from certain.
In a new republic however, the founders might envision a better way to interpret law, to interpret the “general gist” not the “particular wording” of law and contracts. If a party to a contract claims that he or she should be able to get the other party, to do work for free for example, because the contract didn’t specify a certain incidental thing, therfore the contract should be considered null, but, Since the work had been completed etc… Should be interpreted by the general gist that work would be done and payment would be made. Not particular wording that forgot some clause or sentence to close some “loophole”.
By adjudicating in this way shady business practices would be curtailed to some extent. Removing some friction in the business climate of a country. When a contract can be written simply and understandably, and most importantly, adjudicated fairly by the general gist, the workings of businesses would be smoother and more efficient.
The lawyers would loose out in such a nation. They would have much less acreage to sow the seeds of chaos. But, they are smart people, I’m sure they’ll find a way to make a decent living…
