Your oversimplification of this issue is quite common. Indeed, class action suits due make more money for the individual lawyers, than the plaintiffs. Of course, you completely discount the chilling effect on consumers that making class-action suits "illegal" would have.
Next time you have a problem with a defective part in your car, see how well you do in a lawsuit against GM when you are payinging your lawyer individually, and GM hires lawyers like me by the dozens to bury you.
As a defense lawyer, I agree that far too many seemingly frivolous class-actions are brought. Indeed, Courts need to be more vigilant in applying the rule 11 standard. Fortunately, however, the rules are drafted to permit a very liberal reading. The purpose is to insure that any suit, with even a shred of merit, can see the light of day before being arbitrarily struck.
The death of class action suits would leave large corporations completely unchecked. In such an absence, the government would have to play an increasing role in the regulatory world to protect consumers. Pick your poisen. Third-party suits that act as a natural market regulator, or true government regulation of big business?
When you take your family to Orlando this spring or summer, know that the major trauma center has had to downgrade its Level status, and you won't be able to get a neurosurgeon quickly because litigation has driven them away. And the nearby Florida ERs rec'ing the Orlando injured are starting to crack under the stress, too. You might rather, someday, have a doc ready to sew your backbone back together than your much-vaunted, lawyer-driven "consumer protections." Who'll protect you when you LACK having that help in the operating room when you need it? Lawyers? How I wish they *could* be help personally liable for the situation they've created...
Perhaps the Twin Towers might have held together a little longer if it wasn't for the lawyers' ravenous insantity on the issue of asbestos. Perhaps not--we'll never know. All we know is the lack of availability of a pretty darn good fire protector--because no builder can risk using common sense in choosing his materials. The juries cannot be trusted, and the lawyers exploit them mightily.
Now I'm laughing at the homeowners in Texas who thought they could abuse their insurance (mold) and now can't buy houses because they can't find insurance to get their mortgages!
On the less vital end, try finding riding lessons for children, or any kind of sport for kids other than the rather boring ones that are so "safe." I could go on and on...