"Without access to lawyers, the law doesn't apply to you." - Ian Millhiser
I've flown business class a couple times, it was nice.
You get to board the plane early, have a comfortable seat, enjoy free drinks. Nice. And it's fine, they pay extra for that. The airlines make a reasonable calculation about how much they're owed for providing those services and they get compensated.
Yet when it comes to dealing with the rest of society, their workers, customers and government, business interests always want to dispute the bill for services rendered. If the law says otherwise, heck, they can get Congress to write laws they like better.
They can also directly write their own laws. And by laws, I mean contracts. Privately drawn up agreements that will be enforced by the courts or an arbitrator whose judgments are considered binding by the courts.
From a letter to President Obama by respected legal professionals Larry Tribe, Abner Mikva, Walter Dellinger, and Christopher Schroeder, emphasis mine:
Recent news reports indicate that you are considering nominating Mark Gitenstein to head the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice. At the same time, these reports have raised questions about whether his nomination would be consistent with your administration's ethics policies.
... In light of Mark's representations, the issue areas from which he will need to recuse himself will include the Federal Arbitration Act, private securities litigation, asbestos liability, regulation of the accounting profession, and matters related to the US-German Tax Treaty. ...
Imagine that you're unemployed and need to get a job. It takes a lot of time these days. You call in all your favors, badger the FBI (friends, brothers and in-laws), send out your resume, go on some interviews. Some days, you replay a dead-end interview conversation over and over again in your mind, 'What did I say? What didn't I say? How could I have said that when I'd already rehearsed that question?' You worry, pace, lay awake and occasionally sit staring mournfully at your breakfast, wondering how much longer your favorite cereal is going to be on the menu.
Then the day you've been waiting for: you're hired.
One catch.
The HR rep puts a piece of paper on the desk in front of you and says you have to sign it to get the job. So you look it over. It's barely comprehensible, something about dispute resolution, but you see a word that makes you start reading a bit more closely.
In the event, wait ... what!? You'd probably wonder what country you were in, wonder if you were really reading English, as you had innocently suspected when you sat down. Surely, I mean, come on, that can't be right. Is it even legal to sign away your right to go to court if someone commits a crime against you?
Yes. Let's take it as read that it is.
So really, think about it. You need this job, your family needs you to take it, and you don't know when another one will be on offer. Would you sign that piece of paper?
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