N002002
Friday, January 18, 2002 2:04 PM
Exaggeration of the award amount (correction to my previous
comment of the same date)
I hope that future public comments by Mr. Feinberg will clarify that the
average payout from the fund under the interim rules will NOT be $1.65
million (which has been repeated over and over in the press and
elsewhere). Of course, the average payout under the interim rules will
be much, much less due to deductions for "collateral source" income.
The average citizen, however, not directly affected by the tragedy, is
unlikely to take the extra time to "read the fine print." This
disinformation is not helpful to public debate about the fairness of the
interim calculations for presumed economic and non-economic losses.
For example, take the repeated voter.com public comments that purport to
inform you of their latest poll results on the question "Does the
government's aid program for families of Sept. 11 victims goes far
enough?" A look at the voter.com website shows that the those comments
to you misstate the question as it is posed on their website. On the
voter.com website, the poll question includes clarifications. Next to
the YES button on the website is the statement: "The families will get
an average of $1.65 million each to help them rebuild their lives."
(Wonder where they got that figure?) Moreover, in order to vote NO on
this question (according to the clarification next to the NO button on
the website) one would have to believe that that a $1.65 million average
per family government payout is not only too low -- but indeed is so
extremely low as to be "ludicrous."
Not exactly a fair way to pose the question if voter.com wants to sample
true and informed public opinion. Hopefully, this attempt to mislead
the rulemakers will be properly ignored.
It also would not hurt if Mr. Feinberg, in his public statements, made
sure the public understands that the Act deprives the victims of very
significant legal rights (i.e. to seek adequate redress in the courts)
at the same time as setting up the fund.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Individual Comment
Frankfurt, Germany