Letter To The Editor: William Warner

It Is long Past Time For Congress To Compensate Disabled Veterans Fairly –

(I emailed this note to Congress today)

I am asking Congress to compensate our grossly underpaid disabled veterans fairly this year. This must be corrected by appropriate legislation now.

In 2022, a totally disabled veteran with no dependents is compensated at the ridiculous rate of $39,984.72 annually. The National Average Wage Index (NAWI) for 2020 was $55,628.60 per annum and the median income for 2020 was $67,521.00. The per capita GDP in 2020 was $63,416.00, among the highest in the world. This low rate of compensation to disabled veterans is deliberate and cruel.

Disabled veterans are only compensated for projected lost wages not to include a ‘loss of quality of life’ payment. That is an antiquated approach to injury compensation and has not been used in courts awarding personal injury compensation for at least two generations now. This is done specifically to keep taxes low on our elites who pay next to nothing in federal taxes every year. And there is a national security aspect to this travesty of justice.

Once our youth realize that serious injury or sickness received in the armed forces will mean a lifetime of near poverty due to artificially low compensation as disabled veterans the armed forces will collapse. It will happen very quickly and we will not be able to stop it once it starts.

A young person would have to be unbalanced to accept this social contract as reasonable between an enlistee and the government. No clear-thinking young person would agree to this lopsided arrangement. This is a danger to all of us.

I ask Congress to work very hard this year to ensure that legislation is introduced and passed to award fair and adequate compensation to our disabled veterans. Congress must end this injustice now.

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