Herein lies the biggest misunderstanding of all.
When the guy on television boasts, "Larry Lawyer got me two point
three million dollars," America cheers.
When Stella spilled hot coffee in her own lap and the jury said that
her injury was worth millions, America cheered.
Don't get us wrong. If an insurance claim is valid and the
compensation makes sense, America should be happy -- because that is
the way that insurance SHOULD work. But if a claim contains elements
of fraud or if the payment is way out of line with the injury,
America should get angry. Why? Because that money belongs to you.
YOU are paying it. Those million dollar bills do not grow on trees
in the jungle, they are paid in premiums by all policyholders.
If Rodney Crooked gets a few million dollars, check your own pockets
-- a few cents is missing. And with every additional inflated award,
you lose a few more cents. By the time the day is done, your
insurance premiums have gone up a dollar. And then another and
another.
Just as an example, it is estimated that 1/3 of all automobile
insurance premiums end up, one way or another, in the hands of
crooks. If fraud did not exist, YOU would still have that money in
YOUR pocket.
Now let's talk about the banking industry for a moment. If lending
institutions were not bleeding money into the hands of crooks, they
wouldn't have to charge the masses of honest people so many darn
fees.
Or the credit card industry. How about those $29 late fees? Those
20+ percent interest rates that college students (having applied for
their very first credit card) pay? Or the insane over-limit fees
that are assessed when a cardholder goes twelve cents over his
credit limit? Or annual charge fees? All of those extra "gouge
dollars" go into the giant pot that doles out money to fraudsters.
YOU are being charged what the market will bear. Just how much are
you willing to bear?
Now walk into your favorite clothing store. $34 for a t-shirt that
has a brand name emblazoned across it ... for about a dollar worth
of material. Why? Hmmm. Let's see what you are REALLY paying for.
All of the frauds that take place throughout the process, from
manufacturing all the way to the sales floor. YOU get to pay $34 so
that a thief can shoplift, so that the guy who lifts the stock can
file a fake or exaggerated worker's compensation claim, and so
another mall patron can fall down in a puddle of strawberry Slurpee
and claim whiplash.
Control the frauds. Control the prices.
Fight Fraud America!