From the VOMITORIUM
It is a cool morning on the Gulf of Mexico….it is 3 June 1979….but all the serenity is about to blow up in everyone’s face…..a well is being drilled in 160 feet of water…….BAM! …….the well suffered a blowout and is recognized as the second largest oil spill in history and the largest accidental spill in history. There problem was….and here is where the Deja part comes in…..when things got tight the Blow Out Preventer did not work and the result was a huge damaging oil spill. Wait for it! There is more deja moments! One techniques that was tried was to lower a cone shape structure over the busted pipe called a “sombero” maybe they should have called it a “top hat”…….that did not work! They used chemical dispersant, booms and suction to try and control the oil in the water…Deja vu…..
The spill was finally controlled….and how was that, Professor? They drilled a relief well…and it took 10 months to stop the leak.
Now does any of that sound at all familiar? Uh Huh…………we can count the nose hairs on a terrorist in Bumfukenstan from space but we have NOT made any progress in controlling oil leaks or techniques for fighting them in over 30 years……..I am so proud! (In case you missed it…that is SARCASM!) This is the best we can do? If so, then someone needs to shut the “F’ up about how far we have come in the use of technology!
The whole free market argument is one of the causes of this disaster…..I say fine…let them rape us, but if they are allowed then there should be criminal charges for any leaks from now on….I am not talking about penalties that does little than whack on the pee-pee…I am talking about fine and JAIL TIME…..
But that’s the point about a REAL free market – apart from intrinsic market forces control that are nothing to do with legislation and similar crap – business FREEDOM comes at a price – TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY by the corporation and its executives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anything else is just total BS!
So true…..Responsibility? There is No such thing in the US…..it is always someone that is at fault.
No, it’s not always someone that is at fault – it’s always someone else that’s at fault – but that’s because you don’t have (and probably never will have) a TRUE free market with built in checks and balances and TOTAL direct responsibility, where if you screw up you PAY the full price even if that means the corporation goes bust!
I understand the concept…I just do not see it ever working that way…..even Adam Smith did not like the concept of capitalism…..
Well he was wrong then – end of! I’ll try a post sometime – I just wrote a book in reply to you and the system dumped it somehow – probably my fault. 🙁
I will try to find the part about capitalism in Wealth of Nations….I may be mistaken but I believe it was Smith….
No prob I am always losing something into that cyber zone…..