"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
link.net...
True, but that is not going to change anytime soon. I was interested to
read that most of the profit from the Comstock silver strike in the 1860's
was consumed in litigation over who owned the claims. Americans
willingness
to use the courts to secure "fair" settlements goes back a long way.

Read the story of Commodore Vanderbilt and how his competitors tried to keep
him out of the transportatio industry. Hell, the very first case the US
Supreme Court ever heard was a ferry operator trying to break a state
sanctioned monopoly issued by the state of Massachuettes.