topics: |  law | philosophy | sociology

q7.t - jan 09 article by Howard - "How Modern Law Makes Us Powerless",
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123293018734014067.html

Library Journal: The nuns of the Missionaries of Charity [Mother Teresa]
believed two abandoned buildings in
New York City would make ideal homeless shelters. The city agreed and offered
to sell the building for one dollar each. Yet the shelter project faltered:
the city's bureaucracy imposed such expensive remodeling requirements on the
buildings that the shelter plans were scrapped. To Howard, an attorney
practicing in New York City, this is but one of many examples of the law's
suffocating Americans by extensive decrees on what may and may not be
done. His book is truly a catalog of horror stories, actually quite
engrossing and adding to the story of public inefficiencies chronicled by
David Osborne's Reinventing Government (Addison-Wesley, 1992). What Howard
does not do as well, however, is offer guidance on remedies. His answer seems
to be that we should take personal responsibility, gather up our courage, and
step out into the sunlight away from government's shadow. More highly
recommended as a study of the negative impact of law is Walter K. Olson's The
Litigation Explosion (LJ 2/15/91) even though its focus is on lawsuits and
the courts.

Distressing, disturbing, devastatingly detailed--this stunning examination of
how modern laws are diminishing America exposes the drawbacks of rule-bound
government, tells why nothing gets done, reveals the phony pretensions of law,
and shows why well-intentioned laws have actually devalued rights. In short,
The Death of Common Sense demonstrates how the buck never stops and how
well-meaning laws are creating a nation of enemies.
[***IDEA: manu's concept - laws different for different people]

http://commongood.org/healthcare-reading-other-booklist-28.html
Why did the New York City building code crush Mother Teresa's plans to build
a shelter for the homeless? Why do your tax dollars pay for policing
elementary school art displays? How did a handicap-access law deny public
bathrooms for thousands of able-bodied people? America is drowning: in law,
legality, bureaucratic process. Abandoning our common sense and individual
sense of responsibility, we live in terror of the law, in awe of procedure,
at was with one another. Philip K. Howard has written the explosive manifesto
for liberation--one of the most talked about sociopolitical treatises of our
time. Citing dozens of examples of bureaucratic overkill--everything from the
labeling of window cleaner as a toxic substance to the U.S. Department of
Defense spending $2 billion on travel and $2.2 billion processing the
paperwork for that travel--The Death of Common Sense shows how far we have
wandered, how we got into this mess, and how we can--and must--get out.