Adam Cohen Quotes
Civil lawsuits do two important things: they compensate people who are injured by the bad acts of others, and they penalize people and companies for bad behavior.
Cohen, Adam. "Editorial Observer; The Truth About Tort Reform." The New York Times, 10 Aug. 2009, p. A16.
Senator Trent Lott had been a strong supporter of making it harder for consumers to sue companies, and making it harder to win even if they sued. Lott and other conservatives thought up the name of “tort reform” for their effort. However when Hurricane Katrina struck, many people lost their homes and when they went to collect from their insurance companies, most would not pay on the grounds that insurance covered wind damage and not flood damage. So if the storm blew the roof and walls down and then the storm surge flooded, it was hard to prove that the initial damage was from the wind storm and not the subsequent flood. Lott lost his expensive home and he himself had trouble collecting, and all of a sudden lawsuits were not so frivolous any longer.
Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, tried his hand as a gun manufacturer early in the history of the new nation. He persuaded President Thomas Jefferson that he could manufacture muskets with interchangeable parts in an era where each gun was made uniquely and there were no “spare parts.” So Whitney was the first of the American Defense Contractors. He was also the first to fail to deliver on his contract. His guns were years late and when they were finally delivered, they were very expensive and worse, not very good. The reason that this quotation is cited is that while Irvine was trying to recover the taxpayer’s money, Whitney visited the Secretaries of State and War as well as President Madison and members of Congress. The result was to give Whitney another chance and another big order for 15,000 guns. Even Whitney later admitted that these were not very good. Some argue that this quotation shows that nothing has changed much in military procurement and defense spending.
Adam Seth Cohen (born c. 1962) is an American journalist, author, lawyer, and former assistant editorial page editor of The New York Times. He also works in the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
