The Best And The Brightest
by digby
The fallacy continues:
Where I was wrong: my belief that oil companies were ready for worst case scenario.
This is the big problem, isn't it? The assumption that people who have a short term financial incentive to gamble are looking out for their own -- and our -- long term interests. It's Uncle Alan Greenspan saying that he was shocked to learn that the Wall Street Big Money Boyz weren't protecting the system that gave them all their wealth. It's believing that the experts have some sort of pride or investment that makes them trustworthy.
And it's why the "let's not look in the rear view mirror" strategy exacerbates this problem. There is literally no incentive or prohibition against doing the wrong thing short term. And in the long run they'll all be rich and comfortable no matter what happens.
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