[ANALYSIS and OPINION]
The storyline of Rao’s Solution (the novel found on other pages on this site) provides what we believe is the most intractable reason for the widening wealth gap between the rich and the poor. Here, however, is another one– the legal system itself. And, as our video shows, this one, like the one in Rao, will be extremely difficult to address even if the laws themselves are otherwise fair and/or even if they might occasionally favor the poor and/or the disadvantaged like the non-discrimination laws found both in statutes and in our Constitution. The logical conclusion one draws from all of this is that, even if the law itself is fair, it is unlikely that the the law will protect us in many, if not most, instances from oppressive and/or bullying dictators and oligarchs. Why? A big reason is the affordability of legal fees. How much justice can a person afford? Unfortunately, for the majority of the population the answer all too often is. “Not much!”.
Moreover, and on a vitally important related point, most people do not realize that criminal defense attorneys do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to defending our Constitutional rights, particularly those, for example, related to unreasonable governmental searches and seizures and Fifth Amendment rights. As pointed out in the videos court appointed lawyers get probably do not get paid enough to do the best job of protecting those vital fundamental rights. And we all will suffer because of it, particularly if the government becomes oppressive.
(One must remember that lawyers are in business. They must make a profit to survive. Lawyers can and do go bankrupt. Indigent criminal defense counsel do not normally go up against large law firms who charge gigantic fees. They go up against prosecutors paid by the state. The fees shown in this video are there to more or less show the two very different worlds rich and poor clients experience and to make the point that it does affect the quality of legal representation that they get simply because a lawyers representing poor folks cannot spend the time on a case that a lawyer representing rich folks can,me can’t help but to note that the rates listed for court appointed lawyers in Virginia were only recently increased [if you can believe that]. For decades all of those rates were less than half of the rates listed in the video. Fairness, requires pointing out that indigent defense lawyers in federal cases, do get paid better than indigent defense counsel in state cases in Virginia. Moreover, in any event, many jurisdictions in Virginia (including the federal courts) are going to a “public defender” system where defense counsel is paid a salary as a full time employee. Nevertheless, the point remains that oligarchs, large corporations and the government can essentially crush any legal opposition put up by the poor and/or anyone not making at least six figures per year and even then in factually complex cases requiring more than one lawyer to handle, legal bills can skyrocket into the stratosphere very easily. Who can afford that?)
Here are our videos on the subject:
