I think it was incredible that the miners are being rescued for this length of time

My question is - why can't we do that in our country?

Corporations would protest and claim Socialism.

Plenty of low wage miners where they came from ....


:sarcasm: (though one hopes it is obvious)

that the miners were collecting their monthly pay
of $1600 while they were down there

They'd rather let them die and pay the widows pittance than to spend a fortune rescuing them

I understand that the Chilean mining company is bankrupt, and the government of Chile is funding the rescue.

would not approve this because this would be socialism

Now if Chile can bring back dead miners to life you may have a point worth making

that a rescue of this kind possible. Look at the recent ones here and how they were cutting corners like good libertarians are expected to do, so that decreases the chances of having to rescue live people.

we say here, too bad, just die.

need I go into it? We are a cruel nation and don't respect the security of people.

...maybe 5 years ago or so. Anyway it was dramatic and amazing, and all 9 of the miners were brought out alive.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10916

But don't tell the others. They need to be outraged to keep going.

Pennsylvania miners were 240 feet below the surface; Chilean miners are at 2300 feet. Pennsylvania miners were trapped for 77 hours; Chilean miners have been trapped for 69 days.

...in how far down they were and how long they had to stay there.

On the other hand, a big rescue operation was undertaken and all were rescued successfully, and it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be successful.

You can drown in 10 feet of water as well as in 100 feet of water. Similarly, being trapped 240 ft down would feel pretty similar to being trapped 2500 ft down -- it's just as dark and there's a big bunch of solid rock between you and freedom.

In any case my point was yes, we've had disasters where we have rescued the miners. I have no reason to believe that miners who were trapped 1/2 mile down would just be left to die, once we had determined they were still alive.

At least, in modern times, since we've been able to communicate with miners deep underground. And it's our technology that's being used down there, by the way. We are playing a small but significant part in this rescue.

we had corporations cutting corners on safety issues even knowing they were but the payoffs were too attractive.

now you want to start a debate like that. No thanks I got better things to debate.

happened exactly the same way but in the U.S. rather than in Chile, the rescue response would be essentially identical (except probably without a visit from the President)...

die even when we could have accepted help, done more to save these lives, Katrina. I was there and have been an activist on Katrina for years, and to see the loss of lives and security of the people isn't only sickening it is moronic. Sure we tried to rescue people in the last mining disasters but we could have done better had we taken care of Massey Ind. who had such a long record of safety violations and the other one, but no the Bush Admin. refused and look what happened.

I don't, despite the manifest screw-ups that took place.

Nobody (as far as I can tell) disagrees that Katrina could have been handled better or that U.S. mine safety regulations could be better written and better enforced. But the 'logic' that I'm seeing on this thread is 'the U.S. needs improvement so Chile must be superior.' That just doesn't make any sense.

Of course, it could be that nobody really thinks Chile is better at these things, it's just that happiness over the rescue progress and frustration with the U.S. in general is causing the praise of Chile to be a bit exaggerated...

there ever being such a heartless and inept rescue effort before.

causing the accident there.

You implied that that only happens in the U.S.

In Chile.

Our corporations aren't the only ones who try to save money by cutting safety corners.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/7966590/Families-of-trapped-Chilean-miners-to-sue-mining-firm.html

Families of the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground are to sue the site's owner for negligence after it emerged it repeatedly ignored warnings about safety concerns and was repeatedly fined for breaching regulations.

One family has already lodged a claim against the mining firm San Esteban Primera and a lawyer representing families of 24 of the trapped miners says he is preparing a case to be submitted imminently.
The company has warned them that it is considering filing for bankruptcy and may not be able to pay salaries owed to the miners when they finally emerge, let alone damages that might be awarded by the impending lawsuits.

Edgardo Reinoso, the lawyer representing 24 families, said someone had to be held responsible for what had happened. "Luckily they are alive, but the harm that the situation has caused for them and their families is huge," he said.

SNIP

Yes -that sounds about right for DU

Kansas City-based Layne Christensen Co using a US made Schramm T130 tophead drill rig and US made Center Rock drill bits drilled the hole they are rescuing the miners through.