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            <name>Title</name>
            <description>A name given to the resource</description>
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                <text>Department of Justice Emails</text>
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            <name>Description</name>
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                <text>The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families.  These e-mails have been organized here by date.</text>
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    <name>September 11 Email</name>
    <description/>
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      <element elementId="65">
        <name>September 11 Email: Body</name>
        <description>The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end.</description>
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            <text>
Thursday, November 08, 2001 11:58 AM
Victim Compensation

I do not know the amount set-aside for the 911 Victims in New York, 
Pennsylvania and Washington.  However, rates of payment should be based on 
Current Annual Middle Individual-Income level.  Those who earned less than 
the National Average would probably have not covered themselves with life 
insurance or only with a low amount.  Nor might they have been working in 
jobs that provided employer paid medical insurance or Worker's Compensation, 
pensions and the like.

Pensions, Charity Awards and Worker¡¦s Compensation, Life, Medical or 
business or State Disability insurance, and Social Security should "not" 
have to be exhausted in order to receive the benefit from the government. 
Therefore, the victims in the higher income brackets who have these things 
will not appear to be penalized.

I have not seen that people cannot sue any other entity.  Many businesses in 
and around the World Trade Center are gone, or reduced.  Yet there is the 
potential for victims or their heirs to sue. These awards should also not 
have to be exhausted in order to collect the government award.  This is a 
payment made on behalf of the airlines, which would otherwise be liable 
regardless of any other of these compensations.

Victim Compensation should be considered a ¡§minimal supplement¡¨ to their 
Loss of Income. It is meant to help the families meet the financial 
challenge of losing a provider through death or through disability (based on 
a typical insurance company schedule for disability or 
dismemberment/disfigurement, and medical expenses not covered by insurance) 
in their household. As long as you are bailing out the airlines, the limit 
per beneficiary should be modeled after no more than the middle 
individual-income base.

However, where the victim who died is a child up to age 18, (or college 
students to age 25) it would be assumed they had not been a primary 
contributor to a household, yet a compensation should be awarded. It would 
seem the minimum amount (1 year income) on the schedule would still be 
awarded as there are expenses with burial and some family members may not 
have had paid bereavement days through their employers.  This is the case 
where humanity is applied to show some value to the grief.

Those injured, yet not disabled or disfigured, should also receive 
compensation for time lost at work, plus medical expenses not covered by 
insurance.  Example: the Middle-Individual-Income Adjusted rate x hours 
missed ($14.37 x 120 hours = $1,724.40 and out-of-pocket medical expenses).

Assumption:
* 20 years old would have a projected income for 45 years
  (to age 65)
?h Annual National Average is somewhere near $28,000 ($13.46/hr.)
?h Insurance premium for medical coverage (employer paid portion, i.e., 80%) 
of perhaps $.91/hour ($200 mo. x 80% /2080)
* TOTAL Adjusted First Year income: $29,889.60 ($14.37/hr.)
* .03 projected increase per year (or whatever the national average on 
increases actually is):

Table shows simplified increments:

1-year (Minimum): $ 29,889.60
5-year: $128,798.35
10-year: $312,761.17
20-year: $773,255.15
30-year: $1,392,120.55
40-year: $2,223,823.89
45-year (Maximum): $2,741,469.97

Payment for a Death would require an amount adjacent to the number of years 
they would have lived before the 65-year retirement age, but ¡§not less¡¨ 
than $29,889.60 (that would cover those past the retirement age).

If Joe and Mary Smith were each 35 years old and died in the event, their 
heirs would be entitled to a total of $2,784,240 (2 x the 30-year rate). 
Which, if deposited and accrued .04 interest/year, it would provide $111,369 
interest income a year on which to live, the equivalent of each earning 
$55,684/year. If they follow this method of preserving their award, the 
first year of annual income will then be near twice the National 
Middle-Income level, while maintaining the original award amount.

I believe this would be fair since the beneficiaries would be signing away 
the right to sue the airlines for wrongful death, malpractice, pain and 
suffering, unsafe conditions, and etc.

If you do not have $12+ Billion, use the Minimum Wage scenario because that 
amount is the ¡§least any citizen could have earned¡¨:

Assumption:
* 20 years old would have a projected income for 45 years
  (to age 65)
?h Annual Minimum Wage is somewhere near $13,000 ($6.25/hr.)
?h Insurance premium (employer paid) of perhaps $.91/hour (Employee only, 
paid at 80% of full medical premium by employer)
* Total first year income: $14,892
* .03 increase projected per year:

Table shows simplified increments:

1-year (Minimum): $ 14,892
5-year: $64,175
10-year: $155,836
20-year: $385,282
30-year: $693,638
40-year: $1,108,043
45-year (Maximum): $1,365,965

In this scenario, Joe and Mary Smith¡¦s heirs would receive $1,387,276.  
Which, if deposited and accrued .04 interest/year, would provide $55,491 
interest income a year on which to live, the equivalent of each earning 
$27,745.50/year.  If they follow this method of preserving their award, the 
annual income will then be near the National Middle-Income level the first 
year while maintaining the original award amount.  It will have allowed the 
beneficiaries who would otherwise not have received Worker¡¦s Compensation, 
Pensions, Charity Awards and Life, Medical or Disability insurances, or had 
the ability to sue the airlines, that extra margin of relief.

If you use a formula similar to one of these ideas, drop me a line.  I¡¦d 
like to know my idea was a good one.


Thank you,

Individual Comment
 
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      <element elementId="66">
        <name>September 11 Email: Date</name>
        <description>The local time and date when the message was written.</description>
        <elementTextContainer>
          <elementText elementTextId="385361">
            <text>2001-11-08</text>
          </elementText>
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        <element elementId="50">
          <name>Title</name>
          <description>A name given to the resource</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="385362">
              <text>dojW000238.xml</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
        </element>
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    </elementSet>
    <elementSet elementSetId="4">
      <name>911DA Item</name>
      <description>Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item.</description>
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          <name>Status</name>
          <description>The process status of this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="385363">
              <text>approved</text>
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          </elementTextContainer>
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        <element elementId="53">
          <name>Consent</name>
          <description>Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="385364">
              <text>full</text>
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          <name>Posting</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item.</description>
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              <text>yes</text>
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        <element elementId="55">
          <name>Copyright</name>
          <description>Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item.</description>
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              <text>yes</text>
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          <name>Source</name>
          <description>The source of this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="385367">
              <text>born-digital</text>
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          <name>Media Type</name>
          <description>The media type of this item.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
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              <text>email</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
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        <element elementId="59">
          <name>Created by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the author created this item.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="385369">
              <text>yes</text>
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          <name>Described by Author</name>
          <description>Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author.</description>
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            <elementText elementTextId="385370">
              <text>no</text>
            </elementText>
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        <element elementId="61">
          <name>Date Entered</name>
          <description>The date this item was entered into the archive.</description>
          <elementTextContainer>
            <elementText elementTextId="385371">
              <text>2001-11-08</text>
            </elementText>
          </elementTextContainer>
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