> Reparations were first thought to be generous when they were in the
> tens of thousands of dollars, and then it increased to hundreds of
> thousands, and then to a million bucks per victim.

Historical perspective: There was a similar inflationary effect in libel cases in the English courts. This was directly traceable to the fact that juries set the penalty, plus the detail that only record-breaking penalties were ever reported in the newspapers. Inevitably, sums awarded ratcheted up over time, as said record-breaking penalties were all the jury members in each trial had ever heard of.

In one of the last such cases, the judge explicitly told the jury to not let the massive sums reported in other cases affect their judgement .... but he was effectively ignored, and yet another record settlement was awarded. The law was changed shortly thereafter so that judges awarded the penalties, and this thermal-runaway effect was stopped cold.