Victim's Compensation Reexamined

Many people made very insightful points in discussion today that caused me to reexamine my views on this subject. While I haven’t changed my position drastically, I now feel that I have a much better understanding of the complexities of the case. One of the points that I found most provocative was Adam’s claim that a personal responsibility model would help our society by weeding out the people least capable of doing their jobs. This argument was one I hadn’t thought of before. I still have great sympathy for the construction worker who inadvertently uses the wrong-sized bolt or the security guard who neglects to search one passenger to the extent that he or she probably should have. As Dave pointed out in discussion, these are human errors and, to an extent, completely unavoidable. However, I also think that it is true that on some level the personal responsibility model is an important component in maintaining high standards in our businesses and, therefore, improving our economy and our society as a whole.

As I look at the various examples we discussed in class of when the government did and did not provide compensation funds to the victims and victims’ families of tragedies, I see no pattern in the source of victimization of these problems. It seems to me that the government provides these funds only if a) this would prevent probable greater economic loss in the future (in the cases of the bridge and the 9/11 fund or b) this would help overcome internationally embarrassment for a clearly wrongful act (as in the case of the Japanese internment-camp victims). These criteria seem somewhat cold and heartless in determining who gets money, but I frankly see no better option. I do not think there will ever be a fair way to determine funds based on the source of victimization, and I think that expanding the funds to all the victims who, in all moral evaluations, deserve compensation would tax our government and our citizens economically (no pun intended) far more than we will ever be able to afford. I am far from satisfied with this conclusion, but this is the most satisfactory solution I can find to such a complex and inherently unfair problem.