Word For The Day: “Spillionares”

It is said that “when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”.  I’ve long theorized that the Government has one and only one tool; spending money.  Which is the reason when something bad happens, they go on a spending bender.  I recall in my youth, sometimes misery came without a check.  That wasn’t so long ago.

When BPs oil spill loomed huge I thought much of the damage would be non-financial.  Aside from a tiny group of fishermen, most people get non financial benefits from Gulf waters.  Pretty beaches; a place to drink beer or cuddle with your girl, recreational fishing, scenery.  All are nice but none pay the rent.

If a formerly pretty beach temporarily stinks of oil why should a check make it smell better?  Beyond basic mitigation at the onset of the event, cash won’t change the beach.  America is skating on thin ice when we start calculating lost revenue.  Reduced tourism, T-shirt sales, reduced ammo sales to hunters in Iowa because a duck died in the Gulf…  It can go forever.

Alas no rain may fall on a person but what the Government thinks a wad of cash will make it sunny.  I disagree…sometimes life sucks and money is the wrong cure.  I said as much when the government got into the business of cutting checks for bankers killed in the 9/11 disaster.  Of course, the idea that tragedy exists and can’t be fixed with a checkbook is a non-PC attitude which gets me dismissed as an evil cheap bastard.  But the BP event has a new word for it; “spillionares”.

Head out to Moonbattery for delicious spillionare snark. that starts with this:

“How do you strike it rich in the Age of Obama? Not by working hard — that would just produce wealth to be confiscated. You need to be one of the confiscators — like the spillionaires on the Gulf Coast, where BP has had its arm twisted into “spreading the wealth around” to the tune of $16 billion.”

Bonus money quote from the source article at the Washington Post:

Felesia Carter, a manager at St. Bernard’s only off-track betting parlor, said customers were gambling away claims money. Her business was so good, she said, that employees worked overtime.

“I don’t understand how BP is just giving its money out like this,” Carter said. “Give it to the people who deserve it.”

It’s easy to understand how BP is “giving it’s money out”.  Obama used the power of the Federal Government to force it to.

Wait for this summer’s Curmudgeonly article about Americans baffled by high gas prices.  The irony meter will hit eleven!