John Edwards, in an
interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset
with the selfishness of Americans.
That's interesting, considering Edwards made his fortune as a personal
injury lawyer.
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Before entering politics,
Edwards was a personal injury trial attorney. He represented
families and children, and specialized in corporate negligence and
medical malpractice claims. Edwards made his personal fortune
through his trial successes and his 2003 financial disclosure
forms showed a total net worth between $12.8 and $60
million. Edwards was criticized for paying himself mostly
through subchapter S corporate dividends, rather than a salary, to
take advantage of a tax-law loophole that allowed him to avoid
paying $591,000 in Medicare taxes; Edwards claimed that he chose
the subchapter S structure to protect his assets from liability.
Edwards' first important
case was a 1984 medical malpractice lawsuit. In that case, Edwards
won a $3.7 million verdict on behalf of his client who suffered
permanent brain and nerve damage after a doctor prescribed a drug
overdose of anti-alcoholism drug Antabuse. In 1985, Edwards
obtained a $5.75 million settlement in a cerebral palsy case for
medical malpractice during childbirth, representing Jennifer
Campbell, a five-year-old cerebral palsy patient. This established
the North Carolina precedent of physician and hospital liability
for failing to determine if the patient understood risks of a
particular procedure. During the trial, it has been argued that
Edwards relied more on his verbal skills as a trial lawyer than on
actual science. While delivering his summary, Edwards said that
"I have to tell you right now – I didn't plan to talk about
this – right now I feel her [Jennifer], I feel her
presence...[Jennifer's] inside me and she's talking to you."
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As for the selfishness of Americans, I think Edwards should look
in the mirror. In fact, American citizens are among the most generous in
the world. I covered this topic when I
wrote about Arthur Brooks' book Who Really Cares.
John Stossel
also writes about the generosity of Americans and Brooks' book.
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Americans' preference for
voluntary contributions over forced giving through government is
one way in which Americans differ from other people. (Don't think
it's forced? See what happens if you don't pay your taxes.)
Syracuse University
professor Arthur Brooks's new book, "Who Really Cares",
points out that Americans give more than the citizens of any other
country. Individually, Americans give seven times more money than
people in Germany and 14 times more than Italians give. We also
volunteer more.
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But this is all in Edwards' nature as an ambulance chaser.
Ignore the facts, employ folk
Marxism
and play the part of the hero of the oppressed.