Letter: FTC settlement was no victory for consumers

An April 1 story in the Daily Herald has really stuck with me. It was reported that the Edward Napleton Automotive Group reached a settlement with the FTC and Illinois attorney general's office for a $10 million settlement after being accused of stealing at least $70 million, mostly from our Black neighbors.

Samuel Levine from the FTC lauded this as a victory for fair business practices and against discrimination. That's not the way I see it.

To put this into perspective the median household income of my city, Hanover Park, is $77,367 per year. If you multiply that by a normal working lifetime, 40 years, you get around $3.1 million per household.

The alleged theft amounts to 22.6 lifetime household incomes, and they were only asked to give back 3.2 lifetime household incomes when they were caught.

To exacerbate the issue, it was stolen from a group of people who have been historically disenfranchised in our society. Our Black neighbors' ancestors were enslaved for dozens of generations, refused equal access to education, careers and public accommodations and refused the right to buy homes in areas that would appreciate. They have been systematically separated from the ability to accrue generational wealth and are more often than not born at a disadvantage for success in our society.

In more current times, they are jailed at a wildly disproportionate rate and subject to intense scrutiny from police that subject them to disproportionate levels of violence.

If that all weren't enough of a disadvantage, the Edward Napleton Automotive Group decided to target them in a scam that stole at least 22.6 lifetime household incomes away from them, and all they had to do to settle it was pay back one-seventh of what they were accused of stealing.

Mr. Levine from the FTC, this is not a victory, it's an outrage.

Matthew Smith

Hanover Park