The news got out, but didn’t seem to have made much of a splash — no doubt several fellow citizens dropped out of the news feed, instead dipping their feet somewhere in a nearby pool or lake. However, we recently learned that the search to find the submersible Titanwhich had disappeared into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean last June, cost us real butter.
It is indeed more than 20 million Canadian dollars, to date, which would have been spent by the Canadian, American and French governments during the research which took place after the implosion of the submersible. Money that comes straight out of taxpayers’ pockets. Unacceptable!
Against all odds and supreme logic, as the news reveals, “ [l]he Canadian government will assume the payment [des coûts engagés notamment par l’utilisation d’un avion canadien de repérage]. He will not ask OceanGate, the company managing the submersible, to pay the bill, even if the machine did not appear to meet regulatory standards. Big deal.
In other words, millionaires and billionaires enjoy luxury tourism, take unnecessary risks, play explorers, board a submersible that is not certified by the safety authorities, in order to simply go and admire the remains of a huge stranded ship, none other than the titanic and we, the poor, morons and other taxpayers like that, we should pay the bill? It just doesn’t make sense. Billionaires get laid — read fly off to space. Billionaires sail the high seas aboard luxury megayachts. Billionaires take unusual trips and go on crazy luxurious journeys. And what, we, we should pay more for the accidents, the damage, their lack of judgment and their arrogant risk-taking related to these extravagances after they have signed a consent form explaining to them that they will be close to death? Anything.
Especially since we already know, in this affair, that the leader of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, took immense risks, himself ignoring facts and science, refusing to comply with the security standards in place, while charging his wealthy customers the modest sum of US$250,000 per passenger to board a craft considered a “mousetrap for billionaires”.
And we, ordinary citizens who have been tightening our belts for months (and even for a few years in some cases), should we bear the costs for this awful and complacent aquatic operation of the ultra-rich set up by an irresponsible American company? No sir.
OceanGate must take responsibility, brave the storm and pay the full cost of this research at sea, as well as the scandal they themselves created in this ridiculous world of luxury tourism. OceanGate must pay for its errors and refund the invoice to us.