Speaking of lawsuit mania, McDonald’s has settled a suit brought by a 420-pound man who claimed disability discrimination (oh, the irony) based on his weight. The amount of the settlement was undisclosed and may well have been just for nuisance value, but what caught my eye was the claimed damages of $300,000 for loss of a $6.75/hour job. I ran the numbers, and this comes to 44,444.44 hours of work. Assuming that the hourly wage has a constant present value of $6.75, working 40 hours a week, that comes out to 1,111.11 weeks of work, which assuming 2 weeks off a year (for the sake of argument) would mean holding the job for 22 years.
Leaving aside the question of how many people actually work at McDonald’s for 22 years, isn’t it wonderful that people think our legal system can be used to get paid for 22 years of dreary, unfulfilling work — without having to do the work itself?
(Yes, I know the article says he also wanted an order to give him the job, but if the damages aren’t supposed to be a substitute for salary, then they are really just pure fluff pulled from the air).