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You had to see it to believe it ... all those cars stuck in snow drifts, abandoned like relics of a bygone ice age.

Thank goodness so many of the large Chicago-based companies had their wits about them, the Chicago Tribune reports.

I bet there was some sniping about whether employers would give employees the day off, there always is.

In the end, companies who ordered their employees not to come to work made the right call. Any loss of productivity was negligible, as many U.S. workers--already the most productive in the world to begin with--stayed home and logged on to their corporate networks using their personal computers.

So what were all those cars doing on Lakeshore Drive? On the freeways and Interstate highways, dozens of local television stations broadcast footage of accidents. Anyone with judgement so impaired as to be driving in the face of this storm should have their accident claim rejected by their insurance carrier, that's what I say.

Why are the rest of us who heed the warnings of our corporate facilities managers penalized through higher premiums to pay for insured losses costing as much as $1.4 billion?

Insurance is about spreading the risk. But paying these claims is a case of spreading the stupidity. Once again we have the sober majority bailing out a reckless minority.

Wait now, doesn't that sound familiar? Didn't we just go through that two years ago when taxpayers bailed out risky financial institutions?

Cyril Tuohy

Managing Editor

March 1, 2011

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