Because Ghav is right, we're not talking about people who had a lot of options in the first place. To elaborate, for the most part we aren't dealing with highly educated and skilled workers with a plethora of diversified business interests in the area. This isn't a case of simply being retrained to do something else: There's not a whole lot "else" to do, so unless we want to fall back on the suggestion given to too many Katrina victims ("just move some place better!" ) that response just indicates a complete disconnect with what's actually going on there. A better comparison might be to Houston when the entire economy was sunk into oil and the bottom dropped out in the '80s, but Houston learned from that mistake and diversified before your time.

Ok so these people in the places that were affected are not educated and have no skills beyond fishing. Fine. So BP is not paying these people to help them immediately so the government should step in and give these people unemployment because that is what is comes down to for now. I absolutely agree. but once all this shit is sorted out the government should make BP reimburse them for the money they paid out. And again, if the fishing industry is destroyed there and the tourism industry isnt gonna pick up for a a long time to come, these people will have to either move of do something else for a living. IF it takes 10 years to make those waters safe for fishing shouldnt these people be trained or educated to move onto something new?

Do you remember the huge earthquake that took place in Pakistan a few years back? Well over there alot fo towns were completely destroyed and people had to pack up and leave for new towns and cites, people who for generations had never left their little country bumpkin communities and were skilled in one thing or were sustenance farmers barely making it had to adapt. they lived on government and foreign aid for a while but then they had to move on. My mom adopted a few families and helped the women learn to be seamstresses and bought their husbands rickshaws and taxis so they could make a living. These are people that had been farming their own land and looking after livestock. I get it, its heartbreaking but these people will have to move on, and if BP is not doing anything to alleviate their suffering then yes, our government should step in without hesitation.



The fact we have someone in BP at which we can conveniently point a finger doesn't mitigate the hardship of millions who suddenly have their entire livelihood put on hold. Sure, they still have a place to live (until the rent's due again... ) and their kids still have schools, but the questions of how they're going to put food on the table are every bit as real as in Haiti. The differences are 1) no one's lining up to airlift them aid and 2) the US government actually has a legal obligation to assist its own CITIZENS in an emergency. It's not unreasonable at all to expect the US government to do at least as much for US citizens in US states as it does for people overseas, and they can just add the cost to the civil and criminal penalties against BP (because if I went out and poisoned half the Gulf I'd go to prison, but BP will just pay a fine. )