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A Cynic’s Wet Dream
Hello and Happy New Year! I know, it has been a while since you saw me on this site. Well, in case you were wondering, I was busy prepping for my final semester! Graduating class of 2008, here I come! I wanted to make sure I found a story worthy of my return to QuizLaw. And boy, do I have a doozy.
Remember Hurricane Katrina? All that damage? All those people forced to flee, turned into refugees and such? Remember feeling really bad for them, thinking that they got royally screwed by the government? Well it looks like the Katrinas are screwing right back. Too bad their piss-poor education system didn’t teach them how to scam money effectively.
Katrina victims have been filing tons of claims (489,000 of them, and counting) — 247 of the claims ask for $1 billion or more, one asks for $6 trillion, and get this, one claim actually asks for $3 quadrillion. Seriously. That is a three, followed by 15 zeroes.
The claims are so massive the government could never hope to pay them. Rather, they are the hopeful — and at times inflated — requests of people reeling from losses.
Just the top filings add up to so much money that the entire annual output of the nation’s economy — $12 trillion — couldn’t pay them off, according to the corps’ listing. It is the first public accounting of the scale of damage demands the corps faces.
Holy Zombie Jesus. The claims outstrip the entire output of the economy of the United States of America. The scary part is that these are the same folks who will spend that money on Tyler Perry films.
Just so you get an idea of the kind of folks making these claims:
Comments
I think the Tyler Perry comment may have been a scoatch racist. Most of the Katrinans that I know are po' WHITE trash. So, technically, they're putting all of their money into Larry the Cable Guy movies.
Posted by Kitty X | January 14, 2008 5:14 PM
WOW! Where to begin?
Turned into Refugees? Weren't they Americans? How do you become a refugee in your own country? Oh that's right, if you're treated like 2nd class citizens to begin with then it's not like you're really an American with any claim to rights.
Yeah it really is too bad their piss poor education system that was built to exclude them didn't teach them that they would have to scam money in order to get any kind of equitable treatment and rights, but I'm sure the conditions in the dome were better than what they're used to (Barabara Bush pointed that one out)
Tyler Perry ehhh? Yeah only stupid Black people like Tyler Perry, sofisticates love Will Ferrel and Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey...
How many different ways can you say Poor Blacks are too stupid to deserve to be treated like humans...yeah there are a few outrageous scams, but the legitimate claims are being turned down as well, but let's not give out any money, they'd probably spend it on Watermelon.
Posted by usually a fan of this site | January 14, 2008 5:14 PM
Where's Jonathan Lee Riches© when you need him? I bet he could file a claim for more than $3 quadrillion. That's just chump change to him!
p.s. Yay Class of 2008!
Posted by three elle | January 14, 2008 6:51 PM
"I think the Tyler Perry comment may have been a scoatch racist."
pretty much was I was sort of thinking. The reality could very well be that people filing know its an insane amount and are doing so to make a point, or at least make it a news story.
Posted by e | January 14, 2008 8:40 PM
Katrinas can join the self-pitifying 9/11 "victims." No doubt they'll continue to milk this for years, much like the pathetic fools who like to proclaim they're 9/11 victim-survivor status at any opportunity.
Posted by bunk | February 3, 2008 2:15 PM