Part the Fourth in the ever-expanding series on why b doesn't trust corps. Note: names changed to appear less like a whiny bastard.

Someone I know, let's call her Mabel, was in an accident back in August. A 17-year old child failed to check for oncoming traffic at a stop sign and pulled out in front of Mabel, who was driving about 45MPH at the time, and who hit the girl's car, which was insured by State Farm.

Mabel's car was totaled and State Farm was fairly quick to inform Mabel of that and cut her a check for the "value" of the car. I'm ignoring 2 aspects of this that I could rant on if I wanted to: 1) Mabel may have $4000 but she no longer has a car and 2) Mabel could not purchase a car that was in as good of shape as her car was for $4000. For the purposes of this screw you tale, State Farm performed their end of the bargain.

As a result of the accident, Mabel broke her wrist, which was in a cast for about 8 weeks. State Farm had no problem covering her doctor's visits and the costs related to it (ambulance ride, ER visit, cast, etc). However, State Farm has refused to pay for the necessary physical rehabilitation. Consequently, Mabel has procured the services of a lawyer to see that she receives the compensation she is rightfully due because of State Farm's client's bad behaviour.

My brother, who is in a position to frequently observe the action of insurance companies while resolving an accident as a sheriff's deputy, reports that this is quite common and what will likely happen is that State Farm will pay out the monies owed Mabel shortly before the court date arrives.

One could argue that there's no problem here, because State Farm eventually will meet their obligation. However, when they eventually do, Mabel will see only two-thirds of the money owed her because of the fees of the lawyer, and that one-third loss would have been unnecessary if State Farm had simply paid the money owed Mabel in a timely fashion. However, it is in State Farm's best interest to delay disbursements such as this as long as possible. Some number of people will not go to the trouble of hiring a lawyer and so will never receive all the money owed them and even for those that do hire a lawyer, State Farm gets to keep that capital and to invest it for an additional weeks/months, making money on it.

This vignette highlights starkly why I remain skeptical of the claim that the free-market will lead to social justice. State Farm behaved exactly in their best interest in the greedy and proper manner of a corporation and Mabel was cheated out of time and money because of it. There is not any behaviour on the part of State Farm that can be characterized as screwing their customers or their employees. And yet justice did not prevail.