ANOTHER INJUSTICE?

There are thousands of needy people whose businesses have been negatively impacted by the Oil Spill in the Gulf. These include fishermen who have been running cash businesses with sketchy record keeping and who may or may not have been paying income tax for the past decades. Now those "Greedy Bastards" at BP, who admittedly are culpable in this Oil Spill, have the audacity to ask people who want cash money to be given to them to actually produce some form of proof that they actually had a business, that actually historically made money, and that actually was affected by the spill. The hubris!! Of course a 1040 would be the gold standard and would be more likely to get the filer of a claim a check for lost income that was documented on the tax form than, say, a handwritten application without any written proof. In a world where scamming is our national sport...mortgage fraud, phishing, Madoff, and our friend the Nigerian banker, whatever, do people really expect that anyone would just send them a check because they want it but have not submitted anything to show they are a real victim with documentable economic loss? This is a legal principle since biblical times. If you have an economic loss from, for example an injury, you have to show somehow that you actually had an income before the injury, an income that you no longer have. What next...walking into a bank and asking for $100,000, and telling them that you have no CD certificate or statement, but "trust me" ?