In 1963, James MacGregor Burns wrote: "Because it has failed to engage itself with the problems that dog us during our working days and haunt our dreams at night, politics has not engaged the best of us, or at least the best in us. If people seem complacent or inert, the cause may lie less in them than in a political system that evades and confuses the real issues rather than sharpening or resolving them."
We find that oil companies are required to have safety plans for offshore drilling. When there was a drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico we found that the plan writing was outsourced, no one read it at the oil company, and no one read it at the Minerals Management Service (MMS.) With other disasters we find that newspaper reporters within an hour have determined the cause of the incident. A year or two later OSHA or MSHA confirms that initial report and blames management for failing to prevent the incident. Money changes hands between the business and government and life goes on with no one making any real complaint.
The solutions to so many safety problems are easy but are not done. There is too much money and too many jobs involved in maintaining dysfunction and in responding to incidents.
Hunger is easy to understand. In today's society hunger is mostly a non-issue. Anyone can get food stamps and there are plenty of give-aways. Try offering a meal to a "will work for food" standing at most intersections.
The big issues today involve safety and security. Physiological needs are mostly solved. However, the solutions go beyond simply providing food to the hungry. Often the problems are qualitative and the solutions are complex.
In December of 2011, the compromise solution for the "Jobs Bill," ostensibly to create jobs, was a two month reduction of billions of dollars in contributions to a bankrupt social security fund in exchange for ten years of added fees to new mortgages.
In a campaign time for both parties, the appearance of more take-home pay is more important than grown-up solutions to real problems.
Cowboy Safety is the realization that government is not going to solve safety and security problems and that people, individually, in their own business, and in their own communities need to find a solution.
David Sneed
We find that oil companies are required to have safety plans for offshore drilling. When there was a drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico we found that the plan writing was outsourced, no one read it at the oil company, and no one read it at the Minerals Management Service (MMS.) With other disasters we find that newspaper reporters within an hour have determined the cause of the incident. A year or two later OSHA or MSHA confirms that initial report and blames management for failing to prevent the incident. Money changes hands between the business and government and life goes on with no one making any real complaint.
The solutions to so many safety problems are easy but are not done. There is too much money and too many jobs involved in maintaining dysfunction and in responding to incidents.
Hunger is easy to understand. In today's society hunger is mostly a non-issue. Anyone can get food stamps and there are plenty of give-aways. Try offering a meal to a "will work for food" standing at most intersections.
The big issues today involve safety and security. Physiological needs are mostly solved. However, the solutions go beyond simply providing food to the hungry. Often the problems are qualitative and the solutions are complex.
In December of 2011, the compromise solution for the "Jobs Bill," ostensibly to create jobs, was a two month reduction of billions of dollars in contributions to a bankrupt social security fund in exchange for ten years of added fees to new mortgages.
In a campaign time for both parties, the appearance of more take-home pay is more important than grown-up solutions to real problems.
Cowboy Safety is the realization that government is not going to solve safety and security problems and that people, individually, in their own business, and in their own communities need to find a solution.
David Sneed
No comments:
Post a Comment