It seems to me that some of the big business apologists are trying to steer the blame for the oil spill back to government by pointing the finger at the MMS and their failures. While the MMS people in charge of the Deep Water oil rig certainly failed to do their job properly the conclusion of this failure is not putting an end to regulations in an effort to cut back on big government.
As mentioned here before, big business's only responsibility to "the common good" is in how much cash can make off of it. Government and it's regulations on big business are the voting publics only means of insuring that more accidents like this one do not occur.
What we need is better regulations or at the very least improvement in the methods these regulations are enforced. How we get there is certainly a topic for debate, but when you consider that most of the offences of the MMS come back to money it make you wonder if the regulators need to be paid more for their job which might lower their incentive to take a bribe. Another possible improvement could be finding people who are passionate about the work and the protections these regulations offer rather than someone who just sees the position as a job.
Clearly the government needs change, but ending regulations on big business would be a giant step in the wrong direction (see Bear Sterns).
No comments:
Post a Comment