It's over 40 days as of this writing since the sinking of a floating deep-water oil rig triggered the worst marine oil spill in all of history. BP's “top kill” maneuver has proven to be a big, fat zero, just like all their other efforts to stop the spill, which only serve to point up the obvious – that BP was never prepared for an eventuality like this. The oil industry hates mandatory safety measures. They take time. They take money. They reek of collectivism. Better to just drill, baby, drill, and if worst comes to worst, bring in the lawyers and public-relations people.

The Gulf coast, which has been home to generations of fisherpeople, is about to be ruined forever. Hundreds of peoples' livelihoods are down the toilet. To say nothing of the wastage of billions of gallons of perfectly good crude oil. So much for the idea that oil is a precious, finite natural resource, not to BP it isn't. To them this is nothing but a major nuisance and a big, fat tax write-off. The way the law is now written, the majority of the costs of cleaning up the mess from this colossal blunder will probably fall squarely upon, that's right, you and me the taxpayers. Let's remember that next April 15th, and when the price of unleaded goes to $9.95 a gallon. Actually, have you noticed that this year's summer gouge – the annual jacking-up of gasoline prices by the energy conglomerates in anticipation of the summer driving season – has failed to materialize? In fact, where I live, gas prices have actually dropped by about 12 cents a gallon. I'll remember that when the cost of a pound of shrimp goes to $99.95.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is this decade's Chernobyl. Like the nuclear accident which rendered hundreds of square miles in the former Soviet Union uninhabitable, it's what happens when you put a risk-laden technology into the hands of arrogant, ignorant bureaucrats (in this case corporate executives rather than Soviet commissars, like there's a difference). BP knew the risks of deep-water oil drilling and chose to ignore them or gloss them over. Through public-relations maneuvering, legal chicanery and corporate doublespeak, BP convinced federal (non-)regulators and some Gulf Coast residents that a disaster like the one which we're living through now was less likely than being killed by a terrorist and by the way, do you want gas for your SUV's or don't you?

And speaking of SUV's, North American transportation policy is for shit. And that's putting it politely. Its sole purpose is to maximize the sales of oil and the machines which burn it. For years, the mantra chanted by businessmen, politicians and much of the citizenry was “What's good for General Motors is good for the USA!” (and what with that company getting billions in federal bailout money, there just might be some truth to that statement. After all, how many small business couldn't use a similar bailout right about now? But as usual, I digress). The interstate highway system was conceived mainly as a strategic device for the US military in its war against Godless Communism. Its primary purpose was the rapid  movement of troops and war matériel across the country in the event of Armageddon rather than the movement of families to theme parks and rest stops, though automakers and oil companies certainly didn't mind the salutary effect it had upon their bottom lines. The flight of thousands to the “automobile suburbs” in the 1950's was driven in no small part by racism. Indeed, car ownership still functions as an economic caste barrier. There's this documentary called “Taken For A Ride”, about how automakers systematically shut down or seriously degraded mass transit all across the nation in order to sell more cars. Try getting to work, shopping or social engagements on any mass transit system outside of a major city (or in a sprawly auto-zone like Los Angeles) and find out what I mean when I say that it practically screams "Buy a car!". While countries like Japan and China invest in high-speed rail systems, our own railroad system, once the envy of the industrialized world, has become The Incredible Shrinking Railroad Network, with railroad right-of-ways being turned into bike paths or hiking trails. Major freight carrier CSX rightly points out in their commercials – excuse me, underwriting announcements - on NPR that ground-shipping by rail is many orders of magnitude more fuel-efficient than other common methods. Indeed, an old friend and railroad buff pointed out that our rail system played a crucial role in winning World War II when fuel was tightly rationed.

But here's the root of the problem in a nutshell – our economy is based upon consumption. Use everything up as quickly and often as possible. Keep the cash registers ringing, the factories (in China) humming and the landfills filled to bursting, and prosperity will be just around the corner, at least until the next big ripoff by the too-big-to-fail banks and brokerage houses. Green pieces of paper, which only have value because the government says that they do, have more value than the lives of the living, breathing human beings who struggle daily to earn enough of them to put a roof over their heads and bread on the table. Indeed, under American law, corporations are full citizens with legal rights and laissez-faire carte-blanche to do whatever the hell they please, even if it destroys individual lives or livelihoods. Like those of the fisherfolk on the Gulf Coast who'll probably end up being greeters at Wal-Mart or flipping burgers at Mickey-D's by this time next year. Yes, we poor peasants are merely resources, something to keep around in case a corporation happens to need some extra bodies for a few months or so, or cannon fodder if it's needed for another war over oil. It's a precious resource, you know, something which our society cannot possibly get along without. Just ask British Petroleum.