Beware Government Handouts
After the 9/11 attacks, Congress arranged for $1 billion in payouts to over a thousand families of the victims:
The dependants of cleaners through to stockbrokers received between $250,000 and $7 million. The average award was $1.6 million — tax-free — but the widows of high-earners became instant multi-millionaires.
The result?
No one could have known that for many of them, the money would destroy their lives once again, attracting jealousy, resentful relatives and making them even more depressed. Some would become squandering, spendaholic widows, their payouts fuelling addictions which could not replace the husbands they had lost. Others would become embroiled in legal battles with their families, their lives eaten up by bitterness.
“No one could have known…” — right?
