BP Should Have to Pay Big Time Regardless of the Consequences

This was part of a story on the Sripps News Service:

The $20 billion compensation fund for victims of the Gulf oil spill is not going over well in BP's homeland.

Britain's Daily Mail accused President Barack Obama of bullying BP into coughing up the money and said flatly it would come out of the pockets of the nation's retirees: "British pensioners will pick up the bill."

What could hurt is the company's decision, at Obama's behest, to cancel a previously declared dividend and suspend the remainder for the rest of the year. BP dividends account for about one-sixth of British pension funds' income.

That's unfortunate, but the spill is doing immediate economic harm to the people of four states who can't wait for the damages to be litigated in U.S. courts.

The British press has been hyper-vigilant for any American impugning of Britain in connection with the spill. Obama was accused of such when he referred to BP by its former name, changed in 1998, of British Petroleum.

This was reply to this story not including the retirement sayings that I added:

I am a Canadian.

The Canadian Pension Fund has money invested in BP, so my pension payouts may be affeded in some way if BP has to pay for large lawsuits.

But as far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter to me whether BP is sued for so much money that it has to go into bankruptcy and disappear as a company completely.

I believe that there are hundreds of millions of people in the U.S, Canada, and many other countries who feel the same way.

This comes down to a matter of responsibility.

BP is run by a bunch of arrogant and selfish executives who have screwed up big time.

Plain and simple, the company should have to pay big time, even if the company has to go into bankruptcy.

It doesn't matter whether British or Canadian retirees are affected. There pension funds took the risk in investing in this irresponsible company so that makes the people who run these pension funds just as irresponsible.

When British retirees say they will have to pick up the bill, this is just some more selfish thinking on their part and does not reflect any critical thinking on there part. That is why the world is so screwed up and we wind up with environmental disasters like the one that is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

Again, the British retirees' pension funds took a risk in investing in BP and should have to suffer the consequences, regardless of how dire.

Ernie J. Zelinski, Creator of Retirement Quotes Website
Author of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and The Joy of Not Working
(Over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)