Posted On: June 27, 2008, 1:12 pm CDT

Posted By: Buckeye

It appears some very relevant issues are being overlooked due to an obvious and intense desire by some to really punish Exxon. Based on many of the posts, one could easily infer that Exxon was simply permitted to haul the Valdez away from the accident site and walk away with no responsibility.

I'm sure that many would cry foul or "liar, liar pants on fire" to the estimated $3.5B Exxon has expended as a result of the accident. We also cannot overlook the $507.5M deemed by the court to be the appropriate compensatory damages. These damages would include direct damages as well as short and long-term losses of those fisherman and other businesses adversely impacted by the accident. I cannot imagine a scenario in which the compensatory damages did not include every last penny of damage and lost business that could be legitimately tied to the accident. That is the way it should be and we really have no reason to believe otherwise.

We have to get past this apparent blind hatred of big business or capitalism, in general, and industries such as the oil industry, in particular. Lest we forget that there is always someone with less money than us who will always try to find a way to take it from us simply because we have more of it. We have to be careful about trying to dole out justice based solely on the size of someone's wallet.