5-01-10 - Oil Rigs, Banks, Bizness motto: "Whatever we can get away with, we will do. Don't blame us. Blame you."

Righteous legislators and citizens rail against businesspeople and corporations for being greedy and irresponsible. That's ridiculous. In our system their responsibility is to be greedy, to maximize short term profit. There's no law or regulation against being greedy. It's obvious, reviewing the record, that whatever can be done to make money will be, that if we don't want something done, there should be a law or regulation against it, and people watching out to make sure it's not done. If not, some people or some businesses will do it, as sure as water flowing down to the lowest level. If it was not illegal to go into people's homes, take their children, grind them into mush, and sell them as pet food - some people would do it. The idea that regulation per se is bad is a recipe for disaster. The idea that business will regulate itself is not sound. The rules might have to be continually adjusted and balanced, but to eliminate them? Not a good idea. What would happen if there were no rules, no penalties in football or on the highways? In chess? To this observer, it is the fault of legislators and ultimately citizens that the recent horrible oil spill happened. It was known that BP had not been willing to spend the money to make sure it wouldn't happen. I'm not talking about eliminating it but about bringing it up to the accepted standard which in this case was having something like an expensive backup safety cap. The same goes for our recent mega financial problems - the dangers were known and allowed. I don't think the president and lawmakers should lecture business people about business ethics - I think they should see that there are the proper laws and regulations in place - an ongoing task. And the people should demand this of the lawmakers. We haven't. We let bizness own the lawmakers and make the rules to a vast extent. This is all our fault.