I recently came across the guideline that was used to calculate how much money was to be paid out to the victims of the attacks on September 11. This was a fund that was set up by the US government partly because of the scale and the unprecedented nature of the September 11th attacks and partly to diminish the amount of lawsuits that the airlines would receive.

According to the New York Times article it goes as follows:

1. Economic loss.
2. Set amounts for pain and suffering: $250,000, plus $100,000 for each surviving spouse and child.
3. Subtract any life insurance paid.

Along with the rubric, The Times also included a chart that showed the amount of payouts that took place as of 2007:

Putting a price on a life is already a difficult concept to parse through. So I am not taken back that the people in charge actually found a price for each of the victims (some compensation had to be made for those individuals who now found themselves without the sole or part-earner in the household).

What I am taken back by is the stratification of how the payouts were dispersed. Who is to say a person makes no income is worth less than a person who makes 4 million and up? Who is to say females are worth less than males? Who is to say that food workers are worth less than individuals who work in finance?

I get the aspect that a person who was a blue collar worker or someone of no income will get less of a payout than a white collar worker or someone who was making $4 million based on the first guideline “economic loss”. But even that argument doesn’t hold much weight as that the food worker might be the next JK Rowling or that person of no income could be the next Bill Gates. Why would it not account for ability not yet realized? We are a meritocratic republic aren’t we?!

Even in a national tragedy like the attacks on September 11 we can’t seem to follow through on the belief that we are a classless society. These payouts are, unfortunately, the reality of the extreme stratification that we hide when we, as a society, claim that we are classless.

AFTER THE JUMP: STEVE GRIMES RESPONDS TO THE COMMENTS THREAD…

I just wanted to follow up on the post.
First, I can see how many are misinterpreting what I was trying to bring across in the post. Much of my approach in the post was tongue-in-cheek. It was one of my earlier postings and I have since learned that the use of sarcasm isn’t the best way to bring across a point than can be somewhat complex.
I was not criticizing the practical nature of the payouts. I also was not criticizing whether it was a good use of tax payer money. As many have noted one of the main reasons these payments went down was to avoid lawsuits which could be argued is a good thing. Furthermore, there was the practical issue of replacing income. So, it is understood that a food worker would get paid less than a finance worker because of the different incomes (if that was part of the rubric).
What I was trying to get to was how we view class and equality in our society and how we generally have contradictory viewpoints to those concepts.
So one hand we are a society based on class when we sell the “American Dream”. That anyone can achieve “success” if they try hard enough because we are all made equal and have equal chances.
On another hand, we deny class exists whenever someone tries to show the great inequality (and the reasons for that inequality) that our society holds. Class has literally become a four letter word. Whenever that inequality is shown the individuals who would like to deny inequality exists scream “class war” as if class antagonism does not exist.
A good example of how we pick and choose when and how to talk about class is how the recent austerity measures are being introduced by our politicians; paraphrasing: “families all over the country are tightening their belt, so the government has to also”. As if we are all in this together equally, when it is simply not the case (i.e. the attack on Unions; tax breaks for the rich).
So this post was to give a representation of our contradictions and how we pick and choose when and how we talk about class. On one hand, the food worker is created equal with everyone else and he has an equal chance to become a finance worker in our supposedly meritocratic society (the “greatness” of our society is literally based on this). However, on the other hand (even though his supposed potential has not have been realized with his death) he is not paid equally with the finance worker. The payouts (should) represent that contradiction.
I hope my follow up comments clean some of the misinterpretations up.

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Steve Grimes has his Master of Arts degree in sociology from St. John’s University in New York, is currently seeking a Master of Science degree in media studies from CUNY Brooklyn College, and plans to be enrolled in a Ph.D. program within the next two years.  He is, at the moment, engrossed in all things cultural studies and his blog, TimelyDonut, is an avenue to express that.

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