Ditto that!
"So why these folks?"
The families of the civilians who were killed on9/11 were compensated in this manner for one reason only - to avoid lenghty litigation that, it was feared, would bankrupt the airlines and other companies involved. Not to mention that such lawsuits might have dragged on for decades and would have left many people without any compensation at all for their loss.
Like this concept or not, that's what it was. It was in no way intended as any kind of "reward" or "jackpot" for those involved. Police and firemen already have systems in place to compensate their families if they die in the line of duty, that is a different situation, although I imagine the FDNY's system was severly strained by so many deaths at one time, not to mention the increase in retirements afterward.
Death is tragic.
What about the single mother killed by a drunk driver? Does she get a million?
I know of a divorced mother of 2 with Huntington's disease; she's slowly dying - Do her kids get a Million?
Why would anyone take my tax dollars and give them to people who have suffered a loss? If congress wants to pass the hat, I'm sure that many congressmen could donate a few million dollars and not even notice it. I, however, am painfully aware of every tax dollar I pay. And when a congressman decides to give my taxdollars away to assuage a pang of guilt; that makes me angry.
Bad thing happen all of the time. Good people suffer, die and are murdered for no reason. Giving the survivors money does nothing more than make a victim rich, at the expense of everyone else.
I'm not disagreeing with you,
BUT, I'm sure that the country is better off not having the airline industry bankrupted from liability lawsuits and inability to acquire reinsurance on their jet fleets.
Put it this way, if the US military was to enter the life insurance business for soldiers, the Generals wouldn't be able to deploy troops to defend this country until the D.C. beancounters' neighborhoods inside the Beltway were under seige by Venezeulan paratroopers.
What we pay military personnel already is embarrassing. Military families don't become millionaires twice over when their loved one is killed. Why these civilian workers were worth more than our enlisted personnel is beyond me.
big time dittos. Our soldiers get virtually nothing, and housewives without life insurance became millionaires and STILL sued the airlines and FAA? Something is seriously twisted about all this. We created a monster by being so generous after 9/11. I'm sure virtually nobody knew that our kindness (privately and Federally) would create a new AFDC program for millionaires (and illegals).