They Should Never Have Been Trapped in the First Place

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This morning the irony meter exploded when Daniel Henninger and the Wall Street Journal proclaimed without any DU-style sarcasm tags that http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703673604575550322091167574.html">Capitalism Saved the Miners. I was pretty sure this was an http://theonion.com">Onion piece, especially when it began with the startling sentence:

It needs to be said. The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free-market capitalism.

:wtf:

Luckily for all of us who missed the chapter in Wealth of Nations where trapping 33 men 2,000 feet underground in an unsafe mine and then http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/01/chile-trapped-miners-owners-forgiveness">begging for forgiveness as the government oversees the rescue is a "smashing victory for free market capitalism", Bill Scherr sets the record straight in a great piece on the United Steelworkers (a group of folks who actually know something about mining) website entitled http://blog.usw.org/2010/10/14/they-should-never-have-been-trapped-in-the-first-place/">They Should Never Have Been Trapped in the First Place.

When the miners first made contact with the outside world, 18 days after the initial explosion, someone had to tell them that the legally mandated emergency ladder didn’t exist. The evacuation exit remained clear for 48 hours and the miners could have escaped during that window, if only they’d had the ladder.

What a relief, at least the mine operators didn't have pesky unions or strong government agencies tying their hands and making them install that ladder. Well, at least not recently.

The government had ordered the mine shut down for flagrant safety violations in 2006 and 2007...Trade unions had lobbied unsuccessfully to shut down the San Jose mine after a string of fatalities. Local mayor Brunilda Gonzalez alleges that the mine was only allowed to operate because of bribes to regulators.

Weak Government, weak unions, weak safety regulations. Though Mr. Henninger would never have the cajones to come out and say it, this is his wet dream and the future that the ruling class envisions for workers worldwide. The fact is, of course, that the mining disaster itself, and not the government overseen rescue effort, is the outcome of free-market capitalism gone unchecked. Some "smashing victory".

Full Article at http://blog.usw.org/2010/10/14/they-should-never-have-been-trapped-in-the-first-place/