re: #38 Cato the Elder

The usual suspects are starting up with the usual whinge about oil companies being forced to pay for cleanup after disasters being wrong-headed because “in the end, they just pass the cost on to the consumer”.

Any thoughts?

1. (snidely) The free market will take care of it.

2. (less snidely) Well, who should have to pay if not the people who made the mess? If they feel that an oil company is such a public good that the state or the feds ought to do it for them, isn’t the consumer just paying for it through taxes?