If we're going to have government pay for the cleanup, then government should run the companies and take the profits, too. And if we're going to keep drilling in the future (as I expect we will), then let's have a plan in place for mandatory fail-safe devices and rapid-response cleanup crews.
That's not nearly as profitable as the current method, you commie.
Totally. How many kids could we send to college for engineering degrees with $86.5 billion in quarterly profits? (And that's just the one company!!) How many electric car quick-charging stations could we install across the country that would end our dependence on all that otter-choking oil?
That, hopefully. Or whatever. It could fully fund any pipe-dream NASA comes up with, or build a bicycle trail from New York to Los Angeles. Whatever Congress wants to do, it could. What is BP spending those profits on now? Clearly, they're not building safer oil rigs!
BP, being a publicly traded company, is spending its profits in part on things like your grandmother's retirement plan, and Joe Schmo's car he bought after selling the stock, and other useful-to-the-economy sorts of things. Profits are good. That's what our whole system is based on!
My only objection is that I don't trust the gummint to do any better at running a high-risk business with efficiency and diligence. If there was only a role model...
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That's not nearly as profitable as the current method, you commie.
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How come it looks to me like there's no incentive now to build a better oil rig?
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It's sort of like that old joke:
What do you call 10,000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
British Petrolium.
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