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xiphiasI just had a weird realization. Remember when I told that story about the Brits paying 15 mil dinars in blood money for two wrongful deaths?
I just worked out some numbers.
Right now, the street value of the Iraqi dinar is somwhere between 900 dinars to the dollar and 200 dinars to the dollar. It acually may be closer to 200 by now -- the Iraqi currency is actually rebounding.
But let's say for sake of argument that it was 1000 dinars/American $. That means that the Brits paid a MINIMUM of $15,000 for two deaths, or $7,500 per death. But it COULD be as high as $375,000.
A bargan price for avoiding the sort of daily death toll that the Americans have been suffering.
But that's not my point.
Right now, the American military "death benefit" is $6,000. The Republicans killed a bill that would have doubled it to $12,000. If you die in service, your family gets $6,000.
The British military is willing to pay 25% more to an Iraqi family than the American military is willing to pay to an American family.
I just worked out some numbers.
Right now, the street value of the Iraqi dinar is somwhere between 900 dinars to the dollar and 200 dinars to the dollar. It acually may be closer to 200 by now -- the Iraqi currency is actually rebounding.
But let's say for sake of argument that it was 1000 dinars/American $. That means that the Brits paid a MINIMUM of $15,000 for two deaths, or $7,500 per death. But it COULD be as high as $375,000.
A bargan price for avoiding the sort of daily death toll that the Americans have been suffering.
But that's not my point.
Right now, the American military "death benefit" is $6,000. The Republicans killed a bill that would have doubled it to $12,000. If you die in service, your family gets $6,000.
The British military is willing to pay 25% more to an Iraqi family than the American military is willing to pay to an American family.
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(Unless of course, you are filing a wrongful death case against the police, in which case a useless drug-addict who wasn't likely to live past 25 is worth millions, even when it is obvious zie themselves were the cause of death).
In Israel the families of fallen soldiers receive that soldier's last military salary, for as long as the parents live, IIRC. These "pensions" amounts to something like 30 percent of the military budget!!
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Date: 2003-07-17 07:10 am (UTC)Apparently, other countries have "violent crime compensation". If you're the victim of a violent crime, you get some cash.
In the United States, we have no such thing. Nor do we have universal health insurance.
Nor do we have very many charities that are easy to find.
The ONLY method available to Americans to get money to take care of their families, or medical bills, or even to bury their dead is suing in court.
And that's why Americans sue each other so much. Because we don't have any other recourse anywhere in our system.