I’ve been a member of the legal profession for decades. I have seen a significant escalation in the amount of paperwork attributable to personal injury litigation over the last 30+ years. Nowhere in my article do I suggest or imply that we should get rid of medical malpractice litigation or otherwise hold doctors to high standards; I’m not at all clear on where you came up with that absurd notion.

And, so that we’re clear, YES, universal health care is essential, saving us billions of dollars (and reducing untold amounts of human misery) each year. And, YES, protecting the environment is absolutely essential to save humanity from the Sixth Mass Extinction event.

My critique of Ms. Warren’s plan was that the psychological underpinnings of her arguments are name-calling and challenging the fundamental values of the highly wealthy. Human Psychology 101 teaches us that when you attack something that is central to a person’s core values, you make them defensive. Conversely, if you change the structures of the world in which they operate and incentivize them for doing good, then you get better actions. So, you are correct in that we have to stop the pernicious practice of allowing the uber-wealthy to hide their assets around the world, but that’s only dealing with a small part of the problem.

Additionally, Warren advances the notion of having a “wealth tax,” which is something that was tried in multiple countries — and they ALL gave up on it, because defining wealth is far more problematic than defining income.

Back during World War II, when people actually paid for their wars, our top marginal tax rate was 94%. Even through Nixon’s term, it was around 70%. Income taxes work; they are measurable and taxes can be captured. Wealth taxes do not work; wealth is far harder to measure, and it’s far more difficult to tax that than income.