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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat<br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>>>…</b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'> It's going to take a Herculean effort on the part of all of us to convince businesses not to disappear, to come back. We're prepared to fight that fight."</span> <span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#222222;background:white'>Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, 31 May 2020</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>…<span style='color:black'>You're presuming those who loot in general are making a political statement and have a genuine political philosophy behind it</span>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>No not really. I realize they are in it for profit and that the looters are they because it is an opportunity. One would think a thief would take into account who they are stealing from. Perhaps they imagine they are stealing from a big rich insurance company, but insurance companies will always cover their losses by some means.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Mayor Lightfoot’s comment seems to imply that businesses coming back is some kind of PR thing, or a political fight. It isn’t. Businesses do not respond to political pressure to come back. They respond to potential profit to be made at the site. They respond to availability of insurance to cover these stores, the price of which just went up dramatically. Some types of business might not be able to get insurance to operate there at all. So… they won’t be back.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The buildings might not even be rebuilt. You can go to some parts of LA where buildings burned in the 1980s which never did get rebuilt. I speculate that ten years from now, some of these sites will still be vacant lots. They can’t even safely rebuild the structures, never mind rent them to businesses. Too dangerous down there.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>>…<span style='color:black'>Finally, while these particular looters drove off in a very expensive ride, my guess is they're not typical for looters. </span>…Dan<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Agreed. The Rolls driver did more to damage the image of the looters than hammer-boy did to the image of ideology-driven vandals. We now identify both groups with hammer-boy and Rolls looter. Images are powerful things.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>