Apart from my unending series "Why we are fucked" I will provide social commentary on other contemporary issues. Today I explore oil, it`s spilling, and the positive outcomes.
Nothing is more American than public outrage stemming from an accident where an obvious scapegoat is present. This is the perfect example, as the public and feds will attempt to financially bring down a company with probably just as much money as us, and more oil...which as a commodity is worth more than our money anyway. (see why we are fucked reason #2) This company of course, is BP.
What the college educated business savvy morons of today that control your retirment won`t tell you is that BP will not go bankrupt, and if they do, they will certainly not collapse as a corporation. They have the kind of money you can`t even comprehend.
As brokers scramble to be impatient and burn off BP stocks, the prices will drop substantially. (not oil, the stocks) Allowing a full blown meltdown on all of the news money shows. While this happens, rich people who can afford to invest in this "broken" company will buy up a shit ton of stocks, then in less than a year will return a ridiculous profit, adding to their unnecessary wealth... which they will spend in other third world countries instead of creating American jobs, pure "trickle on" economics. The upper middle class people who dump their stocks because its the "hip" thing to do will be left with shares of companies with much shorter shelf lives than BP. Have fun putting your trust fund on the shoulders of "Hot Topic".
Another thing I do not understand, the oil splooging from the depths is a tragedy, but why is the public trying to publically execute BP? The last time I checked there is a vortex of trash in the Pacific Ocean larger than the state of Texas...check out the Pacific Trash Gyre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M&feature=related
I don`t know about you, but I recover a lot faster from being covered in something bad for me as opposed to ingesting it. But hey, the Gyre is a problem generated from public irresponsibility and lack of federal action, so we can ignore it. It isnlt like BP was like "You know what would be good for business? Blowing up an oil rig, not being able to fix it, and dumping all sorts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico."
People are outraged by BP`s CEO saying publically he wishes his life could get back to normal. This guy was probably being rich, sexing up interns, driving boats, flying planes, golfing, and gambling all kinds of money on obscure things like "how many people do you think I can fire today". Sure, his comments look bad, but you can`t fault the guy for telling the truth. Now he has makeup obsessed news anchors, angry redneck fishermen, and emotionless government officials up his ass all day. I don`t feel bad for the guy, but he was in the middle of a high class parade none of us were invited to, one most of us can`t fathom...but regardless, his parade got shit on, and nobody enjoys that. I would probably wish my life was back to normal too. What is the incentive to tell the public the truth if you get burned at the stake for it?
Its nearing two months, and the hole is not plugged. There is sure to be ecological damage for years after this, I hope something is formulated to create jobs and develope an efficient clean up strategy.
On a lighter note this helps Bush`s image a bit in my mind. Katrina and The Oil Spill haved proven that we just are not able to quickly fix large environmental disasters. To be good at something you have to practice. I have only seen New Orleans get wiped out once in my life, and I have only seen the entire Gulf of Mexico covered in oil once in my life. At the end of the day, these are just people like me and you controlling this country, how do you expect them to fix atrocities their minds can not even dream up in a game of "worst case scenario". I can only imagine getting one of those phone calls:
"President Reynard, New Orleans is gone"
"Huh? What do you mean "gone", its a pretty big place, it can`t just be gone"
"No Mr. President, a hurricane and flood wiped it out"
"Oh...Wow. Call anyone you know that has ever had anything to do with helicopters, sandbags, shop vacs, bull-dozers, building plans, boats, Dizzy Gillespie, riot control, food, shelter....oh Jesus, I don`t know, get everyone down there. There are`nt a lot of people still there right? I mean we told them to evacuate, we said "Hey New Orleans, things might get real bad here soon, so leave for a few days" they listened did`nt they?"
"No sir, most of them stayed behind to weather the storm"
"UGHHH. Do we even have enough resources to stop the flooding and rescue all of these people by the end of today?"
"No. Not a chance in Hell, there was no way to prepare for this."
"Wow, the public is going to come down hard on me for this one. Thanks a lot God, shit on my parade...really wish things would just go back to normal.
