think BP should pay its Dividend and that the American Government has
this one wrong.
BP are hugely, hugely awash with cash and have said they'll pay all
costs, and that's good.
Shareholders didn't spill the oil so why should they be penalised ?
Also, loads of pension funds the world over rely on that Dividend to
finance pensions for folks you and I know, so that wouldn't be fair?
If BP are good to their word and pay, why should the rightly
expectant nominees of a Dividend payment be denied their $2600
*Million* dollars?
Imagine how repeatedly that is spent again and again in the economy
and all those knock ons for kick starting an economy and driving sales.
Is this the US Government being seen to look chastising? Kinda wrong
IMHO .....
Soap box away now.
Come on Capitalism!
8 comments:
I have been wondering how this is perceived over there. This upsets me greatly. Do you know what they just did to our country? Have you guys really, actually seen it? It is absolutely horrible. Do you know how many people, animals and industries this has crippled? First, the fishermen. They cannot work, they are losing their homes, their families are going without because there is no money coming in. The fishing industry is huge in the gulf. The tourism industry is dead, ruining businesses left and right. The wetlands, which is probably my favorite part of Marine Bio, is covered in oil. The wetlands are like the nurseries of the ocean. Everything in them is dying. Also, the wetlands protect the coast during bad storms and hurricanes. Hurricane season is upon us and that means no protection for that area, it also means that oil will be pushed further into the land. No, I believe that that money should be paid to clean up the mess they caused but taking shortcuts and playing fast and loose with OUR ocean. If this happened on your coast, what would you have them do? Think hard about it. There is a very good fishing industry in the UK, what would happen to that industry and those people if this happened there. I honestly believe that you all are not getting the real picture over there. We just want the mess cleaned up and BP REFUSES to do it.
Oh, I posted about this a couple weeks ago, BTW. I am VERY VERY VERY angry.
And also, saying they will pay us and actually doing it are 2 different things. We need that money NOW. Waiting for our government to start paying for their horrible mistake IS NOT GOING TO WORK.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/gulf.coast.oil.spill/?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/10/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/10/oiled.birds.rescue/index.html?hpt=T1
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/10/oil.disaster.heat/index.html?hpt=T1
Hey, I hear you! :)
BP should certainly pay whatever it costs to clean up, there’s no doubt about that.
But from what I understand they were operating according to American laws - and I think American laws on oil exploration are rather weak. This in no way excuses BP; but it does suggest there is also a problem within the US government. And I think the previous administration, under Bush and particularly Cheney, is culpable for a lot of this over-light regulation.
And of course there is also the argument that the average American consumer is in some sense to blame also. America, with 5% of the world’s population, consumes 25% of the world’s energy. That insatiable demand for energy - and America’s unwillingness to pay a higher price for fuel - means that companies will take ever greater risks to get to the oil.
One might also argue that the Americans, in using so much energy, are polluting the whole world with C02 emissions.
Finally I would say that Obama’s focus on the word ‘British’ in the name is a bit of essentially empty rhetoric. Companies of that size are beyond nations; they are transnational.
I recall that the Piper Alpha disaster - in which 167 were killed - was due to poor design and operation - yet there was no particular anti-American angle from the British, even though Piper Alpha was a US owned rig operated in British waters.
None of this is to disagree with your basic points, Scargosun. But the issues here go beyond the simple issue of blaming BP.
It is going to come out that their shortcuts, not in accordance with US law, were the problem.
I hope I am misunderstanding your comment but it sounds like you are saying that we deserved this. No one deserves this. The loss of life, not only human, is absolutely devastating and the effects will be felt for decades to come.
There is a problem with oil exploration as a whole but right now, BP is to blame, bottom line and they are not taking responsibility for their actions. Money is needed NOW for cleanup and they should not be the ones to direct the cleanup effort as that would be a conflict of interest.
Tiny Tony "wants his life back" well you know what? So do all the people in the gulf states.
No, no - far from it. I do not at all mean the US deserves this. BP should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and guilty executives should be punished - certainly with long jail sentences, if their guilt was willful. And the ‘I want my life back comments’ were indeed crassly insensitive. I very much hope the US will go after BP with a lot of muscle - too often corporations are above the law.
I guess my point is that to me this incident is about more than only BP - it is also to do with the US - and the world’s - reliance on oil and its unwillingness to reduce oil usage. I think that US citizens ought to be thinking about how much their country uses oil, in addition to the fully justified anger at BP.
But I guess we agree on this really - you did say you saw the problem was with oil exploration as a whole.
I agree that BP deciding to pay the dividend was a mistake too. But then that raises more problems, doesn’t it? I have no problem with the speculators losing a lot of money because of this (I think unrestrained capitalism is a blight on society), but why should OAPs (in any country) see a drop in their pensions because of this event?
Well y'see many pensions are reliant on growth through stock investment to pay out. and about 12% of UK pension income from speculation is banking on the BP divvie.
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