In a world pockmarked by hunger and poverty, darkened by misery, riven by earthquake, scorched by fire, ravaged by flood, and shattered by bombs, we have just witnessed a modern miracle. Thirty-three miners who had been buried alive for 68 days over 2,000 feet beneath the Atacama desert of northern Chile have been resurrected safely, brought up alive and remarkably well to the cheers and embraces of their families and friends.
And what made all this possible? A government takeover.
The private company that sent those men down thousands of feet to dig for copper and gold could not possibly have funded and organized the rescue operation. So it was taken over by the government of Chile, which spent more than 22 million dollars to get the men out. With the best equipment and engineering money can buy, the Chilean government authorized the drilling of three separate escape shafts so as to maximize chances of reaching the men as quickly as possible. One shaft reached the men, and out they came.
Since many Americans now denounce our government as the author of all evils, the Chilean rescue story reminds us of something we must never forget. Our government, and it is always our government, can also be the source of extraordinary good--precisely because it can do things that private companies cannot or will not do. Beyond defending us against foreign enemies, which it has always done, let us remember what our government does for us at home. Since 1935, it has provided Social Security for people over 65, and since 1965, it has furnished Medicare for them (or us, I should now say, since I'm 71 myself.) Is there anyone running for office out there who thinks we should abolish Social Security and Medicare, should end the government "takeover" of basic medical care and basic pension benefits for the seniors among us? 
When these two programs were established, some voices darkly claimed they would lead us down the road to socialism. But even as our economy remains fundamentally capitalist, the vast majority of Americans would be dismayed to lose Social Security, and more than 90 % of Medicare recipients like it. Let's be honest about our government. It is not perfect. It sometimes makes big mistakes and wastes a lot of our money. But it also tackles some big, important jobs that no one else can do, and it sometimes does them very well.
One thing more about Chile: the survival and rescue of the miners took more than government funds and brilliant engineering at the top. It took whole-hearted co-operation among all parties to the rescue, beginning with the miners themselves down below. For 17 days, these 33 men lived on rations normally meant to sustain them for no more than two or three days. How did they do it? Under the extraordinary leadership of Luis Urzua, their foreman, they conscientiously shared what little they had, with each man taking precisely one spoonful of tuna fish every 48 hours. They must also have shared the conviction that each man's survival depended on all of the others down there with him--not to mention the people above. In the end, those people included Sebastian Pinera, the right-wing billionaire who recently won the presidency of Chile from a left-winger named Michelle Bachelet. Pinera not only hugged each one of the miners as he came out of the rescue capsule; he also promised a new set of regulations to make sure that Chilean miners would never be trapped again.
Time alone will tell whether or not Pinera keeps his word. But so long as the Chilean people remember the miners (and how can they ever forget?), it will be difficult if not impossible for Pinera to forget about regulating the mines. And what Chilean politician will dare to oppose such regulation?
Almost as miraculous as the rescue itself was the spectacle of a billionaire president hugging miners earning $1600 a month. It may be only grandstanding for the cameras, but I strongly suspect that it is something more, that Pinera speaks and acts for a people united in joyous admiration for the miners and their rescuers: united right across the gulf between right and left, poverty and wealth, one political party and another.
Will we ever see anything like that kind of unity in what we call these United States? In our relentless quest for absolute freedom and individual rights, have we forgotten that our founding fathers drafted our constitution not only to ensure those rights but to achieve "a more perfect union"? Do we not see that if we destroy our government, which some seem bent on doing, we may end up just as doomed as those miners would have been without the help of theirs?
In my 71 years, I have never seen a country so divided as ours is now. Tea party candidates and their Republican allies seem united only by their hatred of the federal government and in particular of our president, who has enraged them chiefly because he backed the passage of a bill that makes health insurance available to millions of Americans who up to now couldn't pay for it or were denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. In other words, the Tea Partiers and the Republicans want to punish the president for providing what every other developed country considers a basic human right: access to affordable health care.
In recent years, some of our government's decisions have have cost us mightily in blood and treasure. Like millions of other Americans, I believe we should not have gone to war against Iraq, and especially not cut taxes while doing so. I also believe that we will never rise up out of the hole of our present deficit without restoring the tax rates that prevailed ten years ago--for at least the wealthiest among us. (The idea that we can cut the deficit without raising taxes at all has been called "a big lie" by David Stockman, the architect of the economic revolution that took place under Ronald Reagan.)
So the present election offers us a choice: not a choice among those who call themselves Republicans, Democrats, or Tea Partiers, but a choice between sustaining the paralyzing divisiveness that we have seen over the past two years and committing ourselves to co-operation, collaboration, and--yes--political compromise across ideological lines. Without such a commitment, I fear for the survival of these dis-United States.
We apparently do not see yet, but we had better see very soon. Great read on the good that good government can do.
Then we had the spectacle of BP lying, manipulating scrimping and erecting a virtual wall around things in the oil spill, whenever possible. The oil industry may have been the only way to get the thing capped, but the government should have been far more involved in taking charge, calling in help from around the world, as in the skimmers and other things which BP refused to request until well into the event, and have called together government and private industries from around the world to get that job done, but BP WELL HAD THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO PAY FOR IT AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN FORCED TO DO IT.
However, here in the United States the right wing would have screamed bloody murder had the government had th audacity to impose such a situation upon BP...heck the Republicans, if you remember, apologized to BP for the intervention of the government, which was little enough.
A small country like Chile fought back against and won against the villains of unbridled greed and overpowered the dark forces of capitalism which puts profits above EVERYTHING ELSE. Here, the money, influence and power of the right wing capitalists and their minions in the Tea Party and their politicians would never have permitted it.
Governments exist for very good reasons and one of them is to step in and take extraordinary measures in extraordinary circumstances. Every tea party supporter on earth would fully support their government spending 22 million dollars in an event like this. That is why we have government and when we expect it to be ready and willing.
The list of things the our government has wasted $22M on, without saving anyone, would fill a room.
The details that get left out of this story - the Catholic faith that sustained the miners and was broadcast to the country by it President, the evil profit-driven US company that provided the drilling solution that shortened the ordeal by months - prove that this is not about government. It is about people, with government as the bit player that it should be.
" Every tea party supporter on earth would fully support their government spending 22 million dollars in an event like this"
Poppycock. They'd let them die. The only thing they'd spend 22 million dollars on would be lining their own pockets. Or maybe also a Taliban-like, fundamentalist Christian, government "takeover" of schools. Indoctrination is the key to success, don't you know.
http://www.theawl.com/2010/10/actually-big-government-and-foreign-intervention-saved-the-miners
"The miners were also employees of a "free-market capitalist" corporation which is undergoing an (state-run!) audit and is likely going into bankruptcy. The miners were rescued by a government-sponsored intervention, supervised by Codelco, the state's copper company, and by gifts from foreign governments. What's more, the rescue seems to have convinced Chile that Codelco should remain state-run and not be privatized.
Likewise, the expertise of NASA -- the American government agency? -- is credited with keeping the miners healthy.
The free-market capitalist company who ran the mine, Empresa Minera San Esteban, was an out-of-control, anti-union, government-regulation defying safety nightmare who allowed its workers to become trapped as par for the course of its worker mistreatment. "
Government takeovers of other countries...preferably ones with a lot of oil...that is what we are best at...
there can be good vs bad in every sector. good or bad in govt and good and bad in private sectors.
in the end, it's good people who made it all happen.. and good is in everyone , if we let go of our ego and think of the greater whole.
beliefs and interests could band together as the Chileans did to work for the common good. I
can't help but think that the behavior of our society is at one of its lowest points in history.
Frankly, I am disgusted by the number of people out there who are "carrying on" against their
own well being having been manipulated by corporate agendas. Tis a very sad time indeed.
No, tnicallen, Capitalism is what has made us the poorest nation on earth. One which lacks compassion, equality, and "justice for all." It makes me sick.
No force on Earth could have made the companies give their goods up if they had not wanted to. It was their brilliance (to develop the technology) and their benevolence (either chalk it up to the desire for free publicity or their goodwill) that made it happen - not some government drive.
Stop and acknowledge reality.
http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/10/15/us-expertise-drilling-and-nasa-aided-design-saved-trapped-chilean-miners