[QUOTE=company man 1;37700]Here’s another quaint alternative. How about hunting down the guilty. Then delivering them to a swift unforgiving justice . . . .[/QUOTE]
That is exactly what should be done. It is exactly what we do with criminal law. When a crime is committed, we find, prosecute and then punish the guilty.
And note this: No one expects criminal law or the punishing of criminals to [B]eliminate[/B] crime – even when you have a death penalty for murder, murders will still occur. So while the existence of criminal law and punishment doubtless has some deterrent effect, no one thinks that each instance of a crime justifies and requires ever-more restrictive regulations.
But when it comes to economic crimes – such as fraud or in this case, the massive violation of other people’s property rights by an oil spill – everyone thinks that the answer is ever-more regulation that only serves to punish all the people who did NOT commit the crime in question.
And what is even more disgusting is that many of the big companies like BP fully support this regulatory approach – because they know that whatever regulatory burden is created, THEY will have the resources to handle it, while their smaller competitors may not. So the increase in government regulation only serves to insulate them from competition.