And it's being paid by the state, presumably in no small part by tax dollars the victims themselves contributed to state funds. It's a slap in the face all around.
An emergency financial manager from the State of Michigan was the one who made the call to switch Flint water source from the original source to the more alkaline (and cheaper) alternative source. It was this alkaline water that wore away the mineral buildup lining the lead pipes, exposed the lead to the water, and then began to dissolve the lead pipes themselves.
Edit: Initially I wrote "acidic". Thinking back more, I think the water source they switched to was actually alkaline. Same end result, but different actual pH.
The problem with that logic, is no-one would ever get compensation from the government, as in the end it's all taxpayer's money.
More or less, yes. Flint has struggled for several decades. The decline of the auto industry in Michigan hit several cities very hard, including Flint. As businesses and people left and unemployment climbed, tax revenue plummeted and crime soared. That encouraged more people to leave. Sometimes even if they abandoned or foresook their homes.
The causes of the crisis are fairly complex. But the management after it had been identified by the population was absolutely criminal. There's a very good reason that criminal charges have been filed. Making the switch was somewhat defensible. However, they ignored the signs of problems, ignored complaints, didn't test appropriately, etc.
Life insurance payouts for example can in theory be consistently be larger than premiums.
It's a neat trick. Lawyers take 600m out of the voters back pocket, hand back 400m, and the people rejoice.
and that's fine, because you're not taking $60 out of everyone's pocket and giving back $40, they're taking $60 out of everyone's pocket and giving $4000 to the people affected. The point of the lawsuit is to force redistributing wealth to compensate the people affected, not as some sort of money-maker.
Criminal lawsuits should be allowed to go forward.
So you're against compensating the victims financially?
>Criminal lawsuits should be allowed to go forward.
You do realize that this judgement doesn't preclude criminal prosecution? The criminal courts and civil courts operate independently.
If the people of Michigan elect clowns to run the state, who cause harm to <some group of people>, the people of Michigan should be responsible for making amends. It doesn't make one whit of difference that the harmed people were, or were not part of Michigan.
This creates an incentive to not elect clowns.