Govt. Compensation

Government Compensation

By Roy D. Follendore III

July 22, 2002

Should our United States Federal Government be compensating victims of a disaster? Does this decision of the United States mean that the Federal Government now has recognized that we have financial obligations that go beyond survival subsistence benefits? A grant is a free and clear gift. A loan is not a gift. A loan is something that one pays back. The only part of a low interest loan that might be considered as charity is the interest that may have otherwise been accrued.

Should a victims natural disasters be treated any differently from that of terrorist disasters? Why should the United States be creating millionaires of any victims families? Why should our Federal Government be paying for the lost life's wages of any victim? The people working in the World Trade Center were not Federal Employees and they should have been attending to their own life insurance. Why should the taxpayers be charged with keeping expensive homes and property for the families of those who died? Why shouldn't these families have to work during their lives like the rest of us? Why shouldn't the families and children be provided with simple decent benefits.

Will we make millionaires of those families whose loved ones die tragically in train wreck accidents, hurricanes, traffic accidents, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal waves, food poisoning, heart attacks, or organ transplants? Does the American Government reserve the right to make multi-millionaires only out of those who are attacked by terrorists? Did our Government offer step up to pay out millions of dollars in compensation to those surviving family members who were blown out of the sky while flying over Scotland?

Something appears to be very wrong with our ideals in this country. This level of generosity is a financial crime against America. At a time when so many citizens are becoming unemployed and out of work without notice this is wrong. At a time when our national budget is being wiped out, this is wrong. At this time when we are refusing to take care of our state schools and our national technical infrastructure, spending billions to make is wrong.

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