I will be the first to admit that I never heard of Silicon Valley Bank before the end of last week. For those who don’t know, it sounds like this bank held a lot of money from start ups and other companies, but didn’t keep enough of the money in house. When clients tried to withdraw their money, there wasn’t enough there.
The part that gets me furious is what happened next. Bank deposits are supposed to be insured by the Government for up to $250,000, but many customers had millions in potential losses. So within 48 hours the Government stepped in to make sure that nobody with holdings at the bank would suffer any losses.
It’s maddening how quickly the Government can act when rich people are losing money. But for people who want relief from student loans or to get healthcare, suddenly it takes forever and people say there’s no money to be had. It’s socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
So what does this have to do with Illinois workers’ compensation?
According to this tweet by well respected NFL commentator Mina Kimes, the Bengals are trying to get Ohio work comp laws changed so their payouts to their players aren’t as big. It’s aim is to limit medical payouts and the size of settlements.
Much like the SVB disaster, this appears, to me, a case of the rich trying to take advantage of their power to hurt those in lesser positions. Now you might not have much sympathy for a NFL player making millions a year, but laws like this can trickle down eventually to hurt regular workers too. Once you start chipping away at a law, the next attack becomes that much easier.
I’m against anything that favors the rich at the expense of the working class. There is truly nobody cheaper than the rich and far too often they will screw the little guy. And the problem is that most legislators are beholden to the rich because those are their donors. It’s one reason why keeping unions strong in Illinois is so important. You want to support politicians who are beholden to the general public.