

Oil leak crisis...scarily familiar? - dstorrs
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=127_1274931222

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ErrantX
What's the [ultimate] solution? Stop underwater drilling? Like that's going to
be popular :)

I see what is being said here; the same solutions are being tried, and are
failing in the same way. But they might have worked; and in other examples
they have worked.

It's fine to criticise the process; but unless you offer alternative
suggestions it's not particularly helpful.

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orblivion
Here's an ultimate solution: privatize all surrounding property, remove all
restrictions, but also all liability caps, don't bail anybody out if liability
drives them out of business, and let the oil companies, their insurance
companies, and the property owners figure out where they want to drill.

~~~
kragen
Here's a solution to your solution: incorporate each oil well as a separate
corporation wholly owned by an oil company, carrying no insurance, and
remitting its entire profits each year to its shareholder as a dividend. The
corporation can buy the property it wants to drill on, so that there's no
property owner to demand insurance.

Then, if there's an accident like this one, all the other property owners can
sue the oil well, which will go bankrupt and pay them pennies on the
kilodollar.

In short, your "ultimate solution" is ultimately thwarted by the institution
of the limited-liability corporation.

(An analogous bug exists even without limited-liability corporations, but it's
less severe: "Tortfeasor regrets that he has only one life to give to atone
for his torts.")

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btilly
Many years ago I heard that every taxi in NYC is separately incorporated for
exactly this reason.

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starkfist
I doubt this is true. However, many rental buildings in NYC are now LLCs for
the reasons described above.

~~~
kragen
Also, every movie. And many software projects.

