That BP and its entire board should have all its/their wealth seized to pay for this disaster.

I thank tvellalott for posting this very interesting argument, which can be summed up in the following passage: "I propose that EVERY member of the BP board should have all their assets liquidated and all wealth seized to pay for this catastrophic natural disaster. The company's assets should also be liquidated." I disagree. Indeed, I believe BP, its directors and shareholders have already been punished too much. Furthermore, I will argue that in a free-market, capitalist country such as the United States, BP has the commercial obligation to use every legal means to minimise any losses the company incurs as a result of the spill. Let's examine the facts. BP is now recovering around 15,000 barrels of crude per day from the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico but tens of thousands of barrels continue to gush into the sea and all that wasted oil has already cost BP tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue. But that's not the end of it, of course. While the management of BP have sympathised with Americans whose livelihoods are threatened by the spill, the general public should realise that BP is not a charity, it's a business and its primary responsibility is not to fishermen in Alabama or hoteliers in Florida, it is to its shareholders. Nevertheless, BP has already generously donated in excess of $1 billion to the people of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. This is far in excess of the $75 million limit of liability for economic damages set under the 1990 Oil Pollution Act but it's still not enough according to the US Government. Senators are demanding the company cough up yet more cash and yesterday President Obama insisted BP set aside a whopping $20 billion in an escrow fund to cover future costs. However, even that vast sum of money might just be the thin edge of the wedge. As Alistair Heath, Editor of City AM observed: "Trial lawyers will do their best to make sure BP is responsible not only for the clean-up but also for all sorts of loosely defined economic damage. The kind of punishment that many in the US are now planning…would be closer to theft than to justice." In addition, President Obama has asked BP suspend its quarterly dividend payment to its shareholders - investors who have already seen the value of their shares plummet as the result of bellicose threats from the US Government. Now, because the directors of BP are remunerated largely in share options in order to minimise their exposure to income tax, they have personally suffered massive financial losses as a result of the incident. For example, last year BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward was awarded ï¿½4,010,000.00 ($5,835,352.00). Assuming the first ï¿½10,000 was paid as salary (which is just over the UK income tax Personal Allowance and therefore enough to keep on him on the right side of the law) and the remainder was paid in tax-efficient share options, the value of his remuneration package will have dropped 64% since December 2009. That means this spill has personally cost the BP Chief Executive ï¿½2,560,000.00 ($3,725,000.00). I very much doubt there are many fishermen in Alabama or hoteliers in Florida who have personally lost that much money as a result of the spill, although some will probably put in speculative compensation claims for that sort of amount. Moving on to the future of BP in the United States, the company must protect its investors' interests and divest itself of its US-based assets as soon as possible. They may not achieve top dollar in such a fire sale and they will lose useful production facilities and a valuable market for their fuel. However, with oil extraction operations in 29 other countries and with global operating revenues of $239 billion per year, BP can afford to take the hit. Most importantly, by ceasing trading in the US, BP will avoid being held financially liable for any further clean-up costs and compensation claims, and thus the money that shareholders in Britain and elsewhere have invested in the company will be protected. Thank you. Sources: ---------- City AM - Leader Column. "Time is fast running out for ailing BP" http://www.cityam.com...... BP - Gulf of Mexico Response http://www.bp.com...... BP – Investor Tools http://www.bp.com... The Daily Telegraph - Q&A. "BP oil spill: how are my finances affected?" http://www.telegraph.co.uk...... HR Magazine – "How does BP justify a 41% remuneration increase for its chief executive?" http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk... CNN - GOP fights Democrats on Gulf moratorium, liability http://www.cnn.com...