2010-06-17

ebonlock: (Stupid Burns)
2010-06-17 07:50 pm

(no subject)

This just has to be shared:

So, over at Simberg's Flying Circus, I'm told that the BP escrow account for the oil spill is extorting twenty billion dollars from a private business as a political slush fund! This is despite the fact that Kenneth Fineburg, the guy who ran the 9/11 compensation, is handling the money. Commenters at The Circus tell me that it's okay if a (government-run) court orders payment after the conclusion of a lawsuit, but anything else is Evil Personified (tm). Of course, the Exxon Valdez lawsuit took 17 years, a fact not mentioned by the commenter.

Here's one of the many, many problems with libertarians: they act as if a multinational corporation is somehow equal to Joe the bait-shack guy. The corporation is not. It's got vastly more power. In a legal dispute, the corporation can simply run out the clock, spending decades and a few millions in lawyers to avoid paying many billions in damages.

Libertarians wonder why people consider them heartless bastards, and don't understand why they can't win elections.