The Bad Guys Always Win

One year ago. 

It's hard to think that just one year ago the news was covering the BP oil spill around the clock while one of the biggest environmental crises was unfolding. The images of the struggling wild life and blackened waters of the gulf. It was absolutely tragic.

The people were pissed and rightfully so. BP screwed up big time and they deserved to pay. So, many individuals boycotted the company and staged protests. They held the companies feet to the fire and demanded answers for why this happened.

So where is BP a year later?

Did the people punish them enough to do damage? Did this crisis cause their business to decline?

Yahoo had the answers:

Despite the uncertainties, BP announced Feb. 1 that it would restore its dividend and that it made a fourth-quarter profit of $5.6 billion, a 30 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Rising oil prices are certain to boost its cash on hand and could lead to even higher profits. BP's stock fell 54 percent in the months after the spill, but it has regained much of that since then. 

The public should have bankrupted that company unless they made this right and corrected their mistakes. Instead we dropped the ball after the bad press died down and the headlines disappeared. BP's stock regained it's strength and they netted profits of nearly $6 billion, which the Yahoo article says is a 30% increase over this period last year.


So not only are they doing as good as last year when the oil spill took place--they're doing better.


Then there is Cincinnati Reds player Mike Leake. Leake may play in a profession I'm not that familiar with but I know enough about major league baseball to know he's paid a pretty penny. In fact, Leake made $425,000 in his second season as a major league player. 


Leake has the prestige of being a major league baseball player, the duty of being a role model to children and others, and an impressive high six figure income. 


And yet CNN is reporting this:

Police arrest reports said Leake removed the price tags from six American Rag T-shirts at a Macy's store and tried to leave without paying for them. Leake makes $425,000 in his second season in the majors.

A Macy's spokesman said the company had no comment beyond what was reported by police.

He's got an income that many of us would kill for. He's got the raw talent and incredible honor of being a pro baseball player. And he shoplifts at a local Macy's for $59.88 worth of t-shirts.


There are single mothers who shoplift, while feeling shame and guilt, to provide food or clothing for their families. And while that's no excuse for shop lifting, I find that more justifiable than some hot shot major leaguer too cheap to spend some of his six figure income on cheap t-shirts. 


Big companies are raping us at the pump and spilling gallons of oil in our ocean and we reward them with increased profits the next year.


Pro baseball players are entertaining us for a huge income and then shoplifting from local stores.


These are not isolated situations. Lindsay Lohan steals a necklace and stands trial. Her reward? Two movie offers. Charlie Sheen goes crazy. Do we get him help? No, we pimp him out for big money on a nationwide tour, while television and movie companies scramble to offer him big deals.


Why is it we stand for this? Why do we tolerate our neighbors getting kicked out of their homes because they can't pay their mortgage? Why do we let it slide when the local church closes it's door after serving the community for decades simply because the bloodsucking banks don't want to give them a loan to survive?


Why do we reward the bad guys and let the good people down?


BP will net record profits while the local fishermen in the gulf can't make a decent buck because of the damage BP's mistake cost them.


The bad guys always win. And for some reason, we let them.