I feel for the people who are currently out of work because of the drilling moratorium, but it should be noted that the people that are concerned about the jobs are the same people (Republicans) who complain about the government loaning the big three in Detroit money. The data that I find shows that up to 50,000 jobs could be affected by the moratorium while it was reported that up to 14 million jobs would be affected by a contraction of the big three. That number has been challenged and the NY Times puts the number closer to 3 million. So just to make this clear Republicans feel that 50,000 oil jobs are more important than 3 million automotive jobs.
Luckily these people can at least get unemployeement checks. I have been told by Republicans that unemployment checks are so big that people don't even bother looking for more work. So while these people may not be working, according the the Republican stance on unemployment, they are getting plenty of money to live on so the jobs themselves are really not that important.
It has also been reported that Republicans feel that the only people who use unemployment do so because they are lazy and the fact that the unemployment rate stands at 9.5% has nothing to do with their inability to find a job. Given this line of thinking all of the displaced oil drilling workers just aren't trying hard enough to get other work. Why are we making such a big deal about a bunch a lazy, unmotivated people?
I'm sure the tens of thousands of fisherman who rely on the gulf for their jobs are really sympathic to the plight of the oil drillers.
Void of all of this Repubocrisy, one very important point that I wanted to make is this sense that the government is to blame for these lost jobs. Big oil has had a long history of influence in government and the reason for 85 days worth of an oil spill is because big oil has fought for and won limited regluation. Almost all business is against regulations because if tends to have a negative impact on profits which business loves. What it does have an affect on is safety. Too much regulation was not the reason that 29 coal miners in West Virginia died recently. That was a push for profit. Too much regluation was not the reason thousands of Enron employees lost all of their retirement savings. That was done in the name of profits. Similarly, by all accounts, the disaster in the gulf was a push by BP for profit not for increased safety. The reason it has taken so long to get a solution to the oil spill is that regluation only requires oil companies drilling off shore to have a plan in place in case of a problem. They don't have to have a secondary system ready to go. They don't even need to have the equipment on hand that it would take to make a secondary system. All the need is a plan. Imagine if we tried to eliminate the military and replace it with a written plan for what we would do if there was a need for the military.
The point here is that BP and other oil companies asked to have even less regluations than we currently have because it affects their profits and if you beleive that the politicians are fighting for American jobs in complaining about the moratorium you are delisional. These politicians are bought and paid for by big business and the push back against the moratorium in the name of jobs is disingenious. As I have said here before the government is the voice of the American people and fighting against it only serves to lessen the power of the people and increase the power of big business. Big oil asked for this disaster and we let them have it so let's stop complaining about the government trying to prevent another disaster and support more regulations that will protect future American jobs and the environment.
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