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Comment by gph | Hacker News Reader

I don't think Thiel is being unethical and I think the decision in this case was valid.

That said I do in general have a problem with all this. I mean what does it say about our justice system when a millionaire needs a billionaire to help seek justice for himself. Is that how it's going to be in the future? If you find yourself wronged by some massively wealthy or powerful entity you now have to find an equally massively wealthy or powerful entity to back you in seeking justice?

We've all known money has far too much power in the legal system. But this just lays it out plain as day. How can anyone look at this and think, "Yea that's a good way of handling things".

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I really doubt whether any just society exists in today. Rich and powerful will always bend the rules. These days the rule ~breaking~ bending is more subtle than the previous. To quote Thucydides[1] "... right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

The challenge still exists for us to find a way to build more just and egalitarian societies.

[1].http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19...

There are airways always degrees.

I cannot speak for other European countries, but in Switzerland, much less of the cost of the judicial system is on the individual. Also for minor the there are dedicated judges appointed to quickly resolve disputes without huge processes. And finally, there's insurance you can get that will pay a lawyer for you if you really get into some nasty situation ever, something I haven't found in the U.S. where it would actually make even more sense, given the litigation trigger happiness here.

The US also has a small claims court, every country does. The problems is that people have very skewed view of the US legal system mainly because of big cases that are sensationalized by them media. Most law suits in the US don't end up as multi-million dollar cases.

Ah, in that sense I agree, yes. His help should not have been needed in the first place.

It was given that Thiel works in the same system.

Donate to the ACLU if you want things to change but don't blame a good thing for being done. Hopefully this will lessen the likelyhood of lawsuits needed to be brought in the future.

> what does it say about our justice system when a millionaire needs a billionaire to help seek justice > "Yea that's a good way of handling things"

That's my view in a nutshell. Despite our reputation as supposed money grubbers perpetually on the side of Big Business I've yet to meet any libertarian who thinks the poor are less deserving of justice, or as we say here: 'a fair shake'.

The thing is a codebase overflowing with cruft.

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