How can you tell if donations are going to help "close the gap", instead of paying for things BP should be covering?
Is it clearly defined what BP is covering? If not, how do charities know that the money they're putting into action is filling the gaps instead of just reducing BP's checks?
Maybe for some people, the point is to clean up the mess. To them, assignment of blame is less important than aversion of disaster. I'm not sure if I subscribe to that view myself, but I can certainly sympathize with it.
I get that. I guess my point is that it doesn't seem like lack of money is the problem that needs solving.
It's not about blame so much as the fact that with BP on the hook for the bill, money isn't the thing that's in need.
You know what will be a million times better than sending clean-up money? When the clean-up is done, book a vacation and go patronize the tourism spots that are currently deserted.
BP might not even be held liable (ultimately) as they weren't personally operating the rig (as far as I've been able to tell). As far as I can tell BP only leased the rig to drill it new wells, I believe (although I could be wrong) that their staff weren't operating the rigs. So I really have no clue where the liability will ultimately land.
Right. All of the hate directed at BP is a little unfair, since it wasn't actually them operating the rig at the time. But then we as a society need someone to blame, and who better to blame than a big company.
In a screw-up of this magnitude, people stop caring about the individuals who make mistakes at the bottom—they want to find the person whose greed made the situation possible, and publicly punish them to discourage others from being greedy in the same way in the future. Of course, since corporations, unlike people, are sociopathic and don't "feel guilty" the way our animal minds expect them to, this won't actually do anything.
Maybe the people to blame are the US public who complain if gas prices rise above "So cheap I don't care". Try paying £1.20/liter for petrol. Then everyone will use less.
Is it clearly defined what BP is covering? If not, how do charities know that the money they're putting into action is filling the gaps instead of just reducing BP's checks?