How Much Do We Get for Putting Up with Them?

It was announced last week that more than $38 billion has been paid out to those people who've come to be referred to, semantics be damned, as "9/11 Victims." Members of that very selective club include not only those who died or were injured in the attacks themselves, but their surviving family members, residents who were displaced by the attacks, people who lost their jobs, those who were exposed to environmental hazards and/or suffered "emotional problems" as a result.

Roughly 12,250 "victims" each received an average of $3.1 million in compensation. (Emergency workers received an average of $1.1 million each more than civilians, but in the end it comes out to about $3.1 million.) Roughly half of that money came from insurance settlements, the other half from charity donations and government handouts. Are we the only ones who are asking, "What the hell for?"

The insurance we can understand, but even if you deduct that from the final average totals, you're talking about these "victims" being handed about $1.6 million each. And that's before all those pending lawsuits hit the courts.

Why? Because a bad thing happened? Bad things happen all the time, yet how many people get handed a million bucks (let alone three) because of it?

To make matters worse, these "victims" complain about it. The money isn't coming fast enough, or it's not enough. Hell, they complain about everything. Over these past three years, the 9/11 Club has become the most overbearing, self-righteous group of professional whiners this city has ever known (and that's saying a lot). We think it's about time they just counted their goddamn blood money once more and shut the hell up.