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Old 12-27-2005, 04:54 AM
  #6  
OldAg84
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Joined APC: Sep 2005
Position: Any, usually behind the wing
Posts: 382
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Unfortunately, we Americans live in a society where being involved in an accident can become one's winning lottery ticket- even if you were not severly injured. We all pay a price every time we purchase an item or service (I'm shopping for general business liability insurance today!) and; deserving or not, there is a sense of- "I'm going to collect, after all I've "paid" into it all these years to pay for all the other scoundrels who have abused the system." I can't say I blame them entirely.

That said, lawsuits in America have made cars safer (think Pinto), drug companies accountable (think thalidomide or maybe VIOXX), and the environment cleaner (think Superfund, Love Canal, etc). These improvements have come at a high monetary cost and obviously have not solved the issues clearly or completely- but I'll let someone start another thread to avoid thread drift.

Clearly, a mistake was made at Midway- the NTSB report will no doubt be specific. A boy was killed and that's a tragedy no amount will compensate for. Any others not truly injured (and to be fair- that can be difficult to determine) are simply acting, for better or worse, within the system as it stands today.
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