Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource 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. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Friday, January 18, 2002 2:21 PM comment on Iterim Rules 18 January 2002 Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20530 RE: Presumed Economic and Non-Economic Loss Tables Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing to make two comments regarding the Presumed Economic and Non-Economic Loss Tables and the Interim Final Rules. 1. Discount Rate In calculating economic damages, a victim?s future earnings are reduced by the income taxes that would have been payable on such earnings. When the after-tax earnings are converted into a present value figure, the interest rate used is 5.13 percent. The Presumed Economic and Non-Economic Loss Tables explain that this rate is ?equivalent, given the other components of the calculation, to a long-term, risk free interest rate.? See Step Four of the Calculation of Economic Loss. There are three problems with this rate. First, the rate of 5.13 percent is clearly not available on safe tax-free instruments; it is a taxable rate. Thus, the present value of the damages is calculated using a victim?s after-tax earnings and a fully taxable discount interest rate. Because the replacement income stream generated by a taxable instrument will be subject to income tax to the extent of interest included, the victim?s family will not receive after-tax income equivalent to the after tax earnings of the victim. Second, the calculation of the victim?s future earnings presumes that the victim would continue to work ?for a number of years equal to the average expected work life as defined by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, ?Worklife Estimates.?? See Step Three of the Calculation of Economic Loss. But the expected work life may be considerably shorter than the ?long term? presumed when setting the discount rate. The expected work life of a 65-year old man would probably be much shorter than the 30-year maturity of a long-term bond. Third, a typical long-term bond pays out only interest until the bond?s maturity, at which time the principal amount is returned On the other hand, the victim?s earnings would have been received in a series of substantially equal payments. Thus, the effective term of the victim?s earnings is shorter than the effective term of a bond that matures at the end of the victim?s expected work life. The discount rate should be adjusted to the rate available on short-term, tax-free investments, especially for those victims whose work life expectation is relatively short. 2. Non-Economic Damages Non-economic damages are presumed to be equal to $250,000 plus $50,000 for each of the victim?s spouse and dependents. Thus, the family of a financially dependent child merits the additional $50,000; the family of a child who was not financially dependent on the victim does not merit the additional amount. This is an astounding distinction when calculating non-economic damages. The dependent child deserves every consideration, certainly in excess of the parsimonious figures in the Presumed Economic and Non-Economic Tables. But more to the point here, why economic dependency is a factor in setting non-economic damages? It should not be. I am not an orphaned child, but I was orphaned on September 11. I loved my father no less after I stopped needing his financial support, and he loved me the same way. The Tables? clear suggestion to the contrary is odious. Sincerely, Individual Comment San Diego, CA September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-18 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001998.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-18