“That is reparations. Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance."
-- Response from Chicago BLM organizer on the looting situation
So this is what 'really' happens, for the benefit of any BLM supporter.
X-company has a store in Chicago on the 'high-side'....meaning 300 employees in the store, and it turns a tidy profit/tax revenue situation for the city.
You arrange a looting situation. The store-front is destroyed, and the bulk of contents are stolen. Total damage? By the time, you resolve the doors and windows, then turn to lost merchandise.....it's between 2 and 3 million. If additional things (like the elevators or fire-sprinkler system) were damaged, then you can add another one to two million on top of the first estimate.
Time lost while repairs take place and zero profit for two weeks take place? That's usually an insurance item as well.
So here's the neat thing....toward December, the insurance company looks at 2021 and hands you the cost for the year ahead. You can figure as a minimum....your insurance went up 20-percent. If there's some chatter about defunding the police or this type thing occurring a second time? You can figure a 50-percent rise in insurance.
How do they pay for the insurance? Normally, they'd pass the bill to consumers/shoppers.
But in this case, the store will ask for a face-to-face meeting with the police and try to determine the odds of this happening again. The police will ask the city council for advice. Basically, no one will say anything to comfort the store.
Adding to the price of underwear? This is a stupid argument. So you market high-cost underwear....the special stuff....$32 for three pairs of underwear (for you Wal-Mart fans, their regular stuff from Mexico would be $7.50 for three pair).
But to meet the new insurance game....the $32 pack of underwear will go to $34. 50. Oddly enough.....at 300 miles away at another store (same brand-name)....the underwear is still $32.
In this case, the store evaluates the situation....why stay in Chicago? You discover 40 miles away.....in some town like St Charles or Aurora...they've got this upscale mall idea being floated around. The city promises to have an actual police department headquarters at the end of the mall, with thirty full-time private security guys walking around as part of their support staff. They even promise an aggressive DA and won't settle for letting people off the hook.
So the store agrees to stay in Chicago for two years, but then plans to exit. The jobs? Lost to Chicago. The city sales tax? Lost to Chicago. Other stores in the district get interested in this, and then vacate downtown. Hotel managers are now talking to the mayor and asking.....is downtown Chicago 'dying'?
The insurance side of this whole discussion? You actually dissolved jobs, sales tax, and made Chicago a lesser place. I know you think of this in terms of reparations.....but in the end....the jobs and sales tax left the city....so what do you think will happen to people in Chicago? Screwed.....big-time.
