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I usually don't participate in threads like this, but I do have a perspective on the subject that differs from some.I understand what you are saying Robert and in some respects, I agree. There are far too many recent cases in which "government" (a term which covers alot of territory) has performed poorly. Where I differ from your view is that instead of losing "faith" that government can ever do anything right, I try to understand what has caused the failure and seek ways to improve it's performance and responsiveness (for example, by reducing the influence of money in our political system). Unlike you, I don't think government is inherently incapable of doing performing well, just as I don't think private industry is incapable of performing it's functions in a responsible way.
I did lose confidence in our government under the Bush/Cheney administration and Republican congress because in my view, they weren't making any effort to do some of the things that I think our government should be doing (such as curbing the worst excesses of private industry and holding them to standards of performance which protect the environment and other public interests).
Bottom line.....if there was NO government regulation of any business activity, I think we would be much, much worse off than we currently are with an imperfect government regulating business activity. I get the sense that you think we'd be just fine. If that's correct, then we have a fundamental difference of world view that no amount of factual evidence either way can resolve. Whereas you have no "faith" in government, for me, faith isn't even part of the equation (I leave that to religious discussions)....it's a question of how to improve the government we have, in conjunction with private industry.
Gary
I understand what you are saying Robert and in some respects, I agree. There are far too many recent cases in which "government" (a term which covers alot of territory) has performed poorly. Where I differ from your view is that instead of losing "faith" that government can ever do anything right, I try to understand what has caused the failure and seek ways to improve it's performance and responsiveness (for example, by reducing the influence of money in our political system). Unlike you, I don't think government is inherently incapable of doing performing well, just as I don't think private industry is incapable of performing it's functions in a responsible way.
I did lose confidence in our government under the Bush/Cheney administration and Republican congress because in my view, they weren't making any effort to do some of the things that I think our government should be doing (such as curbing the worst excesses of private industry and holding them to standards of performance which protect the environment and other public interests).
Bottom line.....if there was NO government regulation of any business activity, I think we would be much, much worse off than we currently are with an imperfect government regulating business activity. I get the sense that you think we'd be just fine. If that's correct, then we have a fundamental difference of world view that no amount of factual evidence either way can resolve. Whereas you have no "faith" in government, for me, faith isn't even part of the equation (I leave that to religious discussions)....it's a question of how to improve the government we have, in conjunction with private industry.
Gary
Maddening, perhaps, but in the case of the Times Square bomber, my understanding from news reports is that it was the airline which did not check the watch list and allowed the guy to board the plane. Apparently the regulation at that time, for international airlines, said 2 things that are relevant here: 1) they only had to check for updates to the watch list every 24 hours and 2) it was the airline's responsibility to check it. Since then, the regulation has been changed to require they check it every 2 hours. Also, by the end of the year, the responsibility for doing this was scheduled to be transferred from the international carrier to the TSA (as it currently is for domestic carriers)...I don't know if the TSA is making that effective sooner.We spend huge amounts of money on counter terrorism managing 'watch lists' and then simply 'watch' people on those lists board planes...this happened with both the Christmas Day bomber, and the Times Square bomber. It's maddening.
Here's an outline I found from the EPA website:And it begs the question....WHY didn't the government have these booms on hand? I don't know the answer to that question, but I think it's quite possible that congress did not provide funding or the MMS did not think it was a priority worth paying for, given who was running the show during the late 90s thru 2008.
This is sort of the point....having the support (tools, personnel, knowledge) at the ready, not just the laws and regulations in place. Not sure what kind of speed you are expecting for this kind of disaster. The Coast Guard was on the scene immediately for search and rescue, plus fireboats to try to contain the fire. The wellhead is a mile below the surface, and nobody knew it was leaking until the fire was out, the rig collapsed, and the oil started to make its way to the surface. Without any gauges working, or gear at the ready, nobody really knew just how much oil was leaking from where, and how much needed to be contained and cleaned up. The feds were onsite the entire time, starting to take over operations, but they lacked both the proper gear and people to do anything more than the well operator was already trying to do, and in some cases, because of their agency and bureaucratic maze, decisions about what to do and how were not coming fast enough, nor was there any real way to implement things more quickly.In terms of rapid response, I disagree. I'm not sure anything at all was done in a 'rapid' fashion with regards to the spill. It appears it could have been easily contained if the feds had the proper tools at their disposal.