The luxury of principle
One of my clients has a small case, with considerable merit, but (as I keep telling him) it will take far more money to pursue the case than the case could possibly be worth. The client keeps saying “I don’t care what it costs. It’s the principle of the matter.” The client can afford it. He’s rich. It reminds me that principle is much easier to stand by when you’ve got the money to do so.
Al Gore has reaped much acclaim and wealth by bleating about global warming and telling everyone else how they should lead their lives. At the same time, he personally can have an energy hog of a house because, hey, he’s rich and can afford to buy indulgences in the form of energy credits.
The rich, who can afford it, and the poor, who won’t have to pay for it, can advocate universal health care on the backs of the middle class, who already pay for their own health care and can’t afford to pay for everybody else’s.
America can interfere in the affairs of other nations (removing Saddam from power, for example and without even stealing the oil that the anti-war folks falsely claimed we were fighting for), on principle, because we are a rich nation and can afford to. In fact, liberals seem to think we should only intervene in situations where there is no possibility that Americans personally could benefit. We must only act on principle, never out of self-interest.
I was planning on blogging on this anyway, but was encouraged to by Tiresias’s comment that attorneys should turn away paying clients with unmeritorious cases. Now, I’m lucky enough to work for a fellow who has built his clientele over the last 40 years to the point where he has more potential work than he can ever take on. We routinely turn away unmeritorious cases, but we can afford to act on principle.
Tiresias took me to task for suggesting that we might not be so willing to turn away business if we needed the business to put food on our families’ tables. Buy, seriously, what other professions are judged that way? If you are a roofer and your potential customer wants a new roof (and is ready and willing to pay for it) do you refuse to take the business because the customer’s house doesn’t need a new roof? Does the butcher try to talk his steak-buying customer into a salad because vegetables are better for him? Does the DirectTV installer try to convince the customer he really should get off the couch and go play tennis?
People who sacrifice themselves for principle (members of our military positively leap to mind) deserve our everlasting respect. For most of us, though, principle is a luxury we indulge in when we can afford it. I suppose what irks me most about American liberals (and, sometimes, American conservatives as well) is that they are so willing to call on others to sacrifice for their principles. But that’s a subject for another post.
