Killing people and ruining families is all part of doing business

Julie -

I hardly think the BP expected the kind of damages they are going to have to pay out in the gulf, no matter how much they cover up and deny and shortchange the claimants.

However, killing and harming people and the environment to some extent are simply figured in as part of doing business looked at in purely actuarial terms of profits and losses.  It is the exact same kind of mindset that one sees at Merck, who hid evidence of large increases in heart risks and continued to market and sell Vioxx until the death toll reached upwards of 60,000.  They fully expected to have to pay out some big sums eventually, but it was all accounted for in the billions of dollars in profits they made in the meanwhile.

Those aren't exceptions when it comes to the corporate global elite, just particularly devastating examples of what happens when greed is put above humanity.  We are not human beings worthy of protecting, providing for and nourishing - we are simply a market to be exploited.