Insurance companies Quotes
This quotation illustrates how out of touch with reality a CEO of a large company can get. At the time, leading insurance companies were urging auto manufacturers to at least offer seat belts as an option. The Department of Transportation test also showed that airbags would save many lives and reduce injuries. Ford was not alone in refusing the examine the experiments seriously. Thousands of Americans died and were maimed while Airbags became an issue that had to be mandated politically rather than leaving it to the leaders of the automotive industry. This quotation is often used to show that the Private Sector simply cannot be trusted to place the public’s health and lives above their profits and hence regulation is needed.
Senator Trent Lott had been a strong supporter of making it harder for consumers to sue companies, and making it harder to win even if they sued. Lott and other conservatives thought up the name of “tort reform” for their effort. However when Hurricane Katrina struck, many people lost their homes and when they went to collect from their insurance companies, most would not pay on the grounds that insurance covered wind damage and not flood damage. So if the storm blew the roof and walls down and then the storm surge flooded, it was hard to prove that the initial damage was from the wind storm and not the subsequent flood. Lott lost his expensive home and he himself had trouble collecting, and all of a sudden lawsuits were not so frivolous any longer.
The President had a series of radio talks to the people in which he addressed them directly and explained things as he then understood them.
