It seems that everyone these days are poised and ready to "get paid." This morning I witnessed a skateboard/vehicle "accident." I am not a skateboarder but, rather an old guy who notices stuff so, excuse my lack of appropriate lingo. The traffic light had just turned red as a woman in a late model SUV came to a stop. Bringing up the rear was a skateboarder. I imagine that he was a university student from his look and the area where we were. He came to a stop near the SUV's right bumper. As many skateboarders do, this particular young man tapped the edge of his board with his right foot in an attempt to catch the board. He missed the catch and the edge of the board grazed the rear door of the SUV. This left a mark that could probably be rubbed out with compound.
Now, here's the get paid part. The woman drove her SUV to the other side of the intersection, parked and got out; over sized earrings dangling and dollar signs in her eyes. "You hit my car," blah, blah, blah, was followed by the kid pleading for sanity. No harm had been done he thought and verbalized. How could that matter? The woman demanded his name and address and his parents names and address. A passerbyer (is that a word?)who had stopped supplied the paper. Before anyone knew it, the fire rescue and police were there. As the officer got out of his car the fireman walked over to the policeman. His head shaking and smiling the fireman recounted the incident for the officer. NO one was hurt they reported. The only injury was the thoughtless damage to the woman's SUV. The woman wanted a report and one was supplied... I had seen enough and moved on.
My initial thought was that this was about money. There was no real damage to the woman's car. Yes, she probably was proud of it and yes the kid should have been more careful but, what about the cost to city services incurred by calling police and fire to the scene of a five dollar vehicle accident? An who is going to pay what ever fictitious sum she will undoubted demand from the kid via his parents? I guess I already answered that.
It just seemed that as a culture we are poised to get paid. Not everything is someones fault. As well can't we excuse anything? And is money our only compensation for life's ups and downs. I don't think that people realize that the money for all of this frivolousness comes from some place. In addition, it makes it harder for people with legitimate claims to be compensated. The insurance company raises the rates of honest people to cover these law suits and innocent kids become a bit more jaded.
I can not tell you how many people gave me a cockeyed look when they learned that I did not sue the city when I had my accident. For those of you not in the know, I slipped on a patch of black ice which resulted in surgery, a permanent plate and eight screws and loads of physical therapy for my shattered ankle. At the time it just did not occur to me. It was the end of winter and there was ice. Fault and blame? I suppose had I known that it would have taken a year and a half to walk a block I might have made it some one's fault and got paid. This does not make me a better person, just a more realistic one in that I know the money had to come from somewhere and as well cities never forget. Maybe more of us should think twice before trying to get paid.
The kid was also late for class.
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