The Glade 4.0

So just out of curiosity, are you seriously advocating that the US government should seize all of BP's assets and liquidate them to pay for the clean up?

Bikini Atoll

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

What leads to you believe I stated or support any such belief?

Really? Do you know what those costs are going to be?

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This



Based on your last response, apparently you feel that it's ok to not fully compensate for the entire cost. What then do you think an appropriate penalty would be? A certain % of the total costs? A penalty based on the revenue of the company? Something else?

There is a substantial difference from wanting the federal government to uphold and enforce the property rights of those affected by the accident and advocating the government violate those same rights.

Secondly, I don't see how you interpreted the statement you claim led to that belief to mean what you thought. How did you come to conclusion I "feel that it's ok to not fully compensate for the entire cost"?

Ok, since apparently I don't understand what your position is, why don't you just lay it out for me.

What, if anything, do you think should be done to BP to compensate for the damages they have caused to the environment, costs incurred by the citizens and government and revenue losses?

What, if any, roles should the government have in that process?

Well, since I didn't state a position aside from the comment about punishment as an incentive to prevent repeats...

However, since you asked:

1) Those responsible, whether it is BP, Halliburton, the federal government and/or Transocean, should be held liable for the costs associated in the clean up and real costs incurred by citizens.

2) Enforcing property rights such that the conditions of (1) are met, regardless of political "ties" or its own culpability.

2b) There may also be some criminal charges that should be applied, both to workers/employees of the companies involved and the federal government.

With regard to punishment outside the government, I would say the market is imposing quite a harsh punishment for this spill already. I think the stock was in the 60's 3 months ago, it's hovering in the low 30's now.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Unless the company is trying to sell stock to raise revenue, I don't hold much value in that stock price as indicative of "punishment". The lower price is just investors adjusting their risk/reward value of stock in the company with the unknown of civil litigation and loss of profit.

Real market repercussions would be expressed in terms of lost sales as people shifted their business to other companies (which would be reflected in the price of the stock, but not as the primary indicator).

In principle I agree with everything you've said here. I'm not sure how realistic it is, but we're on the same page for what should happen.

What roll, if any, do you think that regulation plays into the issue here? And just so I'm clear regulation doesn't necessarily mean that we need more or additional laws, it could just mean a more efficient or effective application of the current ones that are on the books.

Exactly what crime occurred? Seriously ...

What criminal behavior took place?

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Contempt in the court of public opinion.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Apparently ...

We should start writing tickets for oil stains in drive ways.

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http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts2/070oils ... ution.html

This guy had the solution WEEKS AGO!!! AMG!

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Holy shitsnacks!

I don't know isn't pumping comppressed pure Oxigen dangerous?

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

It's unclear if criminal behavior occurred or not. That would be what the investigation is for. It is entirely possible that nothing criminal occurred and it was just an accident. However, that in my mind goes back to the idea of regulation. We need to learn what happened, determine the cause and figure out how to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

However, if during the investigation we find there was criminal wrong doing, then that needs to be procecuted.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... -kill-them

Some of the comments have me /facepalming.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Most of the comments had me /facepalming.

If there's a 1% chance for survival, then you're wasting precious time for really very little results. It's called triage people. Save the ones you can, humanely kill the ones that won't make it.

...

I really wish they would stop using that stock photo.

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Someone please tell me about the pure Oxigen!

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

What? BP intentionally blew up an old rig and a few billion dollars worth of equipment to what end? Insurance? The platform would never be insured for the amount invested in making it work.**** breaks. Things we can't anticipate happen. Methane under pressure crystallizes and causes all sorts of problems for cut-off vales and blow-out preventers. The petroleum engineers I know suspect that the blow-out preventer did what it was supposed to do and in the process of doing so ... ignited the methane. I mean, hell, BP didn't know there was that much methane in the field/deposit until it was already tapped.

We can't ensure it never happens again. And talking about regulation/legislation/litigation etc. to achieve that goal is both naive and foolish.
And what possible criminal wrong doing could have occurred? Because, honestly, any crime that MIGHT have occurred to is going to vacate BP's liability.

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I could, but I don't want to pay that guy any royalties. I think he copyrighted it.

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Holy shitsnacks!

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Holy shitsnacks!

Khross,

Ok then, I'll ask you the same thing I asked Ladas. What, if anything, do you think should be done about the leak, both present time fix/cleanup and long term.