6 ms·

Doesn't $1B seem a bit high? I mean no offense, it just sounds so out of left field, to demand $1B from your government.

specto 4y ago
It's there to make a statement, I'm sure there are limitations on suits like this.
wmf 4y ago
According to the article nearly $900M has already been paid out over this guy. These numbers are mind-boggling.
- giantg2 4y ago
  "Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by Nassar. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement." It blows my mind that places like this even have that kind of money. Or maybe they have some sort of insurance. Then there's the fact that any individuals responsible (besides the actual perpetrator) have no financial responsibility. The cost gets passed on to future students or other consumers of insured organizations.
  - nathancahill 4y ago
    "MSU's endowment had a market value of $3.9 billion in June 2021".
    - giantg2 4y ago
      Usually the endowment is protected though. They can only withdraw so much at a time because it lives in a trust, right?
  - no_wizard 4y ago
    Its an interesting thought experiment to imagine if we had a world where, if proven beyond reasonable doubt, that someone knew of something like this taking place, they bore some real responsibility as well. While I don't know anything about legal nuances to sufficiently say its a good idea (or bad, honestly), I have to say that my armchair take is this would mitigate a lot of bad in our society, as the incentives to allow things go unnoticed or effectively ignored would be gone
    - giantg2 4y ago
      There are laws about reporting suspected abuse. But I think those are mostly around minors and primary/secondary schools. It's also probably hard to prove they knew, so they go after them on a failure to supervise in civil trials. The burden of proof is also much lower in civil cases.
  - the_doctah 4y ago
    I had no idea he assaulted over 300 women. How on earth did he not get arrested sooner?
  - itronitron 4y ago
    In 2019, Michigan State University's endowment was $3.93 Billion. >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universit...
    - giantg2 4y ago
      Usually the endowment is protected though. They can only withdraw so much at a time because it lives in a trust, right?
RickTM 4y ago
wouldn't be necessary if merit & citizens rights were enough to get the agency to do the right thing, god knows their exuberant salaries aren't making them do it.
- RickTM 4y ago
slg 4y ago
The article says there are approximately 90 claimants. $11m per victim doesn't sound that outlandish a number. It goes to highlight the enormous scale of the crime that the total amasses to $1b.
- giantg2 4y ago
  Maybe I'm weird, but $11M still sounds high. It's also not about the damages that the actual perpetrator caused, this seems more like a punitive case against the government.
  - newsclues 4y ago
    What is the lifetime median salary for an American? Hard to pin down a figure but say $2million. So taxpayers will pay over 5x the normal lifetime income to the victims. I think there may be an issue with this because I think there is a lot of evil bad stuff that happens and if the government pays for all of it (the trend is to right all injustice), aren’t we risking economic collapse with these massive settlements? If this pays out, there will be more…
    - slg 4y ago
      >I think there is a lot of evil bad stuff that happens They aren't suing because evil bad stuff happened. They are suing because (they believe) the government caused evil bad stuff to happen.
      - giantg2 4y ago
        Not even "caused" but "allowed"
        slg 4y ago
        A semantic distinction at best. There is no real practical difference from the perspective of a victim. Remember, that is all this is at this point. No verdict has been returned, no settlement reached. These are purely claims from victims.

specto 4y ago

It's there to make a statement, I'm sure there are limitations on suits like this.

wmf 4y ago

According to the article nearly $900M has already been paid out over this guy. These numbers are mind-boggling.

giantg2 4y ago
"Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted by Nassar. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement." It blows my mind that places like this even have that kind of money. Or maybe they have some sort of insurance. Then there's the fact that any individuals responsible (besides the actual perpetrator) have no financial responsibility. The cost gets passed on to future students or other consumers of insured organizations.
- nathancahill 4y ago
  "MSU's endowment had a market value of $3.9 billion in June 2021".
  - giantg2 4y ago
    Usually the endowment is protected though. They can only withdraw so much at a time because it lives in a trust, right?
- no_wizard 4y ago
  Its an interesting thought experiment to imagine if we had a world where, if proven beyond reasonable doubt, that someone knew of something like this taking place, they bore some real responsibility as well. While I don't know anything about legal nuances to sufficiently say its a good idea (or bad, honestly), I have to say that my armchair take is this would mitigate a lot of bad in our society, as the incentives to allow things go unnoticed or effectively ignored would be gone
  - giantg2 4y ago
    There are laws about reporting suspected abuse. But I think those are mostly around minors and primary/secondary schools. It's also probably hard to prove they knew, so they go after them on a failure to supervise in civil trials. The burden of proof is also much lower in civil cases.
- the_doctah 4y ago
  I had no idea he assaulted over 300 women. How on earth did he not get arrested sooner?
- itronitron 4y ago
  In 2019, Michigan State University's endowment was $3.93 Billion. >> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universit...
  - giantg2 4y ago
    Usually the endowment is protected though. They can only withdraw so much at a time because it lives in a trust, right?

RickTM 4y ago

wouldn't be necessary if merit & citizens rights were enough to get the agency to do the right thing, god knows their exuberant salaries aren't making them do it.

RickTM 4y ago

slg 4y ago

The article says there are approximately 90 claimants. $11m per victim doesn't sound that outlandish a number. It goes to highlight the enormous scale of the crime that the total amasses to $1b.

giantg2 4y ago
Maybe I'm weird, but $11M still sounds high. It's also not about the damages that the actual perpetrator caused, this seems more like a punitive case against the government.
- newsclues 4y ago
  What is the lifetime median salary for an American? Hard to pin down a figure but say $2million. So taxpayers will pay over 5x the normal lifetime income to the victims. I think there may be an issue with this because I think there is a lot of evil bad stuff that happens and if the government pays for all of it (the trend is to right all injustice), aren’t we risking economic collapse with these massive settlements? If this pays out, there will be more…
  - slg 4y ago
    >I think there is a lot of evil bad stuff that happens They aren't suing because evil bad stuff happened. They are suing because (they believe) the government caused evil bad stuff to happen.
    - giantg2 4y ago
      Not even "caused" but "allowed"
      - slg 4y ago
        A semantic distinction at best. There is no real practical difference from the perspective of a victim. Remember, that is all this is at this point. No verdict has been returned, no settlement reached. These are purely claims from victims.