Part III
Who would you choose to base your decisions on; the experts in
whatever field you are studying or the people who are the money behind it? Both are important, of course, but the
experts know a lot more about what is going on.
Sadly, money over intelligence seems to be the theme of late. This is what is happening with climate change regulations and the coal
industry. So, now let's get to this week’s danger from this administration; their helping of the wealthiest while barely
masking it as trying to help create jobs and help the economy. There are, again, so many examples that it’s impossible
to go through them all. One smaller example to start with along these lines that would
annoy almost every American: A bill that was just passed by the senate without garnering any
attention lets internet service
providers sell your info without
asking your permission first. I’m sure
that would have gone over well if we were given the choice. Who does this bill benefit?
But with the president specifically, it’s obvious that he puts the
priorities of the CEOs of big business ahead of anything else. The president wants to get rid of the
fiduciary rule, which requires that financial advisors act in the client’s best
interest. Yes, I’m aware that there are
some issues there, but the premise is an important one and smart businessmen
can make it work. He repealed
the transparency rule for oil companies requiring that they divulge their
payments to foreign governments. This
was put in place to stem corruption, and yet the president listened to these
CEOs say that it wasn’t fair to them and didn’t let them compete at the same
level, so he repealed it. That’s like
saying that Olympians should be allowed to dope because other countries weren’t
as strict with their testing. Another example of this type of thinking: republican
politicians have also been pushing a bill to significantly reduce mining safety
regulations – in WV, which had more coal mining deaths anywhere in the US. It’s pretty obvious who this helps.
Today, though, sets another low as the president rolls back environmental
regulations by executive order. Sure,
there may be some overregulation in areas, but there must be a systematic
approach and solid scientific reasons for deregulation. Yet, somehow, this president thinks that he
knows better than the smartest people in the world when it comes to climate
change. He’d, again, rather listen to
oil execs who have been shown to mislead the public and research on climate
change data (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rex-tillerson-may-be-in-hot-water-over-exxonmobil-emails/ar-BByU741?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp)
than the top scientists, organizations, and even other governments, world
leaders, and his own secretary of defense.
Seriously, Stephen Hawking
seems to have been amazingly prophetic when, in June of last year, he said that the biggest
problem facing the world is climate change and that pollution coupled with human greed and stupidity are the biggest threats to
humankind.
Jobs are
important, and I sincerely feel for the workers in the coal industry. But, this isn’t the way to solve that
problem. While a few jobs may come back
temporarily, our long-term health and survival is essential, and this is not likely
to make changes on a large scale in respect to jobs. In fact, some argue, that it won’t make much
difference at all (http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/28/news/economy/trump-power-plants/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-dom). Even Mitch McConnell admitted that it wouldn’t
bring the coal industry back to the way it was.
I’m extremely
saddened by the focus solely on business and money first with a lack of interest
in health, environment, safety, and anything else that truly matters. The negative consequences of haphazardly
reducing climate change regulations are extremely significant and can not, I
repeat, can not be ignored!
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