With 9.8% unemployment why are volunteers cleaning up the BP mess?

[NNN0LHI]

Shouldn't we be hiring a bunch of currently unemployed people for this dirty dangerous work? Wouldn't that make more sense?

http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/experts-warn-of-gulf-oil-spills-toxicity/1093346

Experts warn of Gulf oil spill's toxicity
By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, May 8, 2010

PENSACOLA — The teacher didn't mince words.

Don't touch the oil, he told the 40 volunteers who had signed up to help clean up the beaches and marshes. Don't let it get on your skin. Don't take off your protective suit, even if it gets to be 100 degrees outside.

And if a supervisor says evacuate, don't dawdle, he warned them. Get out of there.

As the Deepwater Horizon rig continues spewing oil from a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico, most of the public's attention has been focused on the harm it could do to beaches, birds, fish and coastal wetlands. But there are questions about how bad the oil could be for humans, too.

"You are dealing with a toxic substance, there's no doubt about it," said David Mica of the pro-drilling Florida Petroleum Council.

[dems_rightnow]

1. Agree

But we shouldn't turn away anyone who wishes to volunteer.

[supernova]

4. There will be work for everyone

it seems. This will be a colossal disaster.

[BeFree]

7. Right

But the problem is that there may come a time when there is no BP around to do any cleaning.

People should keep track of their time spent on clean up, and send a bill to BP. Figure $25 an hour as a going rate for hazardous duty.

Local governments, I would imagine, are keeping track of the hours they are spending on this BP mess. The governments should not allow BP to get free services.

[babylonsister]

2. BP is supposedly hiring fishermen to clean up...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01marsh.html

Fishermen Sign On to Clean Up Oil

[SoCalDem]

17. I'd bet that their "employment" has strings attached to it

It's really sad that they have to link up with the one who harmed them to make a buck.

and once the furor dies down, they'll be jettisoned by BP in a New York Minute, and left to fend for themselves for decades to come.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

3. It's morally superior to help corporations clean up thier messes for free

than to pick your own fruit or perform any sort of menial labor considered "beneath you"
That's for the brown people... don'cha know?

Trust me... if they started paying volunteers minimum wage, volunteers would:
a) go back home to blogging about not being able to find work
-or-
b) require translators

[RKP5637]

5. +1, n/t

[lostnfound]

13. Easy enough solution to that," paid volunteers" who donate their wages

to an anti-drilling lobby.

[seabeyond]

6. i had to re read title. thought you said 98%. lol. thought

a bet of an exaggeration. not enough coffee yet.

just a funny

[NNN0LHI]

9. I could easily have posted 98% with these screwed up eyes of mine

Wouldn't have surprised me in the least.

Don

[Hubert Flottz]

8. Let the "Contractors" take care of their mess.

People want to save what they can of their part of the world.

[Statistical]

10. I do agree and not just for the une,mployment issue. The moral hazard it creates.

Bean-counters look at everything to develop statistical models to account for cost of various scenarios.

The expected "free labor" volunteers provide add to the equation. This depresses the overall cleanup costs and make more risky behavior profitable.

[WhiteTara]

11. cause it's the unemployeds' fault

don't you know? After all if they had had jobs, then maybe they would have been on the rig and stopped the gusher from happening...maybe by falling into the well.
:sarcasm:

[AndyA]

12. It's not like BP couldn't afford to PAY PEOPLE TO CLEAN UP ITS MESS!

"2009 has been one of the best years for BP and its shareholders since the merger with Amoco"

BP's disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to wreak vast and long-lasting damage to the environmentally sensitive bayous of the Louisiana coast and to fisheries as far north as Florida. Yet the most stunningly obvious facts go unmentioned in mainstream media.

Beyond the incalculable costs of the despoliation to the ecology of the region, the damage measurable in dollars is immense. About one-fifth of U.S. seafood comes from the Gulf. Most shrimp will now have to be imported from China and Vietnam. The oil vomiting from the sea-bottom, estimated at 210,000 gallons per day, is putting thousands of commercial and sports fishermen out of business. The impact will almost certainly dwarf that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe.

Yet BP's profits are up -- 135% this quarter -- despite a history of preventable mistakes, from the U.S. refinery explosion in 2005 to the spills on Prudoe Bay in 2006 and 2007. The fine levied against BP in 2009 for safety violations was the largest in the history of OSHA., but it was a mere fly-speck on the company's balance sheet. Such fines are simply a cost of doing business.

Oddest of all, few commentators have pointed out the obvious fact that sits before us like an oil-besmirched elephant in the living room: BP is a huge British company, headquartered in London; it's the third largest global energy company in the world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-morse/bp-profits-from-gulf-spil_b_561055.html

[jtrockville]

14. +1. Once again...

we're being asked to help those who are WAY MORE FORTUNATE than us.

[cdsilv]

15. Careerbuilder has jobs posted for the cleanup effort. I got this last week and forwarded it....

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?sc_extcmp=JS_JobAlert_Title&ipath=PSSGT00UM&psa=1&Job_DID=J8A1RH664JZK5K12Z80

[NNN0LHI]

16. Base Pay: $16.00 - $23.00 /Hour

If I were unemployed thats where I would be headed.

Don

[Ganja Ninja]

18. Absolutely.

There is no reason for anyone to do this and not get paid, even the volunteers that work for environmental clubs cleaning birds. Everyone of them should be paid and the clubs be reimbursed for the materials they use. And considering the toxic nature of the clean up they should be given health insurance too.