Cost of Earthquake

[charlestudor2005]

OK, for all the leftwingers, rightwingers, and libertarianwingers here: just how much $$$$ is the US sinking into the "help Japan" effort?

Where is it coming from? Whose budget? Shouldn't we be keeping all this $$$ for the good ole USA in our time of economic troubles?

Shouldn't Japan's response, recovery and rebuilding effort come from...Japan, not the US?

Once we start, we'll have a tough time shutting off the valve of money.

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by charlestudor2005

OK, for all the leftwingers, rightwingers, and libertarianwingers here: just how much $$$$ is the US sinking into the "help Japan" effort?

Where is it coming from? Whose budget? Shouldn't we be keeping all this $$$ for the good ole USA in our time of economic troubles?

Shouldn't Japan's response, recovery and rebuilding effort come from...Japan, not the US?

Once we start, we'll have a tough time shutting off the valve of money.

Why waste money on the Japanese when the democrat party has donors to bail out and NASA needs more funds for Muslim outreach.....

[pjorourke]

Geez Chuck, you want us to give up Cowboy Poetry to fund that shit?

[charlestudor2005]

PJ, you're assuming I want to fund it.

I think once we start (which was a few days ago when we started sending ships in), it'll never stop. Our government will be strapped for cash, more so than now, and the only people making money off it will be Halliburton.

We saw it in Katrina, and I can't imagine it being any different here.

[pjorourke]

The ships are a different issue. Not a lot of countries have a fleet of carriers that can help out in that situation.

[Mazomaniac]

I got no problem with putting in all the humanitarian aid we can muster over there as fast as we can send.

Once the crisis over and it's time for economic rebuilding . . . well . . . this isn't very Buddhist of me . . . but fuck 'em. Maybe karma is a bitch.

Cheers,
Mazo.

[TexTushHog]

I read a figure yesterday that the environmental cost of the clean up of the melt down of one reactor of the type that was in trouble in Japan was $560 billion. It made no mention of whether the cost would increase if three melted down, as will now apparently happen. I just don't see how that's our problem.

I'm like Mazo. I'm all for sending food, shelter, etc. the sorts of minimal "make you feel good about yourself," "show the flag" stuff we did in Haiti, Indonesia, etc. But of course in those places, our efforts lost steam in short order and we had very little impact in comparison to what needed to be done. And the costs of this will make those events look like a ladies Sunday social in comparison.

[Guest083011]

The reactors' failures are heading into a new territory. Yes, we should help with technology and relief support. Japan is a good partner over the years and if the table were reversed they would help too. I don't think we can snuff out the meltdown with buckets of cash right now. Japan is in a heep of trouble on so many levels. Imagine if this was Indian Point just north of NYC and "done blowed up." Talk about a cluster fook.

[Guest050715-1]

Originally Posted by SR Only

The reactors' failures are heading into a new territory. Yes, we should help with technology and relief support. Japan is a good partner over the years and if the table were reversed they would help too. I don't think we can snuff out the meltdown with buckets of cash right now. Japan is in a heep of trouble on so many levels. Imagine if this was Indian Point just north of NYC and "done blowed up." Talk about a cluster fook.

I don’t believe Japan has been a good partner to us. They declared economic war on us after WWII. But – now hear is a term I think we are familiar with – they are too big to fail.

No, we shouldn’t keep our money. They are the third largest economy in he world. Take that spend out of the market place and you’ve got a giant hole in supply and demand both. Just look at the DJI. No production in Japan means no newly minted Japanese products sold here. Worse, there will be no spares for the products already in the marketplace. Trickle down industries here in the States, and I’m sure anywhere Japanese products are sold, are already feeling the pinch.

Besides, look how many jobs this is going to create. Rebuilding Japan’s damaged areas is wealth creation. It’s not a money grab like the Obama’s stimulus package. Giving money away so people stay home isn’t the same as giving money away so people can go rebuild cities.

[Guest083011]

In Japan, business is war. Fair enough. But the Japanese will do their damnest to make sure you do not lose face either. It is the honorable thing to do. They are proud of their country, their people, and their culture(s). Kinda sounds like us.

I have Japanese friends both here and in Tokyo. They are great people and incredibly loyal.

[pjorourke]

And amazingly stoic. I have not yet seen one scene of looting or someone bitching at the Prime Minister for not doing more. What a pleasant contrast to New Orleans.

[TexTushHog]

I think an interesting idea would be for Japan to attempt to recover some of their costs for the designers and installers of the reactors. Obviously there were serious problems with the design of the systems (assuming -- and it's a hell of an assumption, I will admit -- that they were being operated correctly). But it seems that they has a single point mode of failure in that a plant power outage would shut down the cooling system. No matter from what source, it is foreseeable that any number of things could cause a plant power outage. That should be designed around. It's a fundamental flaw, not something you patch up by installing generators.

The potential defendants, as I understand it would be GE, Hitachi, EBASCO (now Raytheon Engineers and Constructors). Construction was by Kajima.

If indeed faulty design played a major role, I think the designers should be on the hook for some of the damage.

[pjorourke]

Spoken like a true ambulance chaser.

[Guest050715-1]

Originally Posted by TexTushHog

I think an interesting idea would be for Japan to attempt to recover some of their costs for the designers and installers of the reactors. Obviously there were serious problems with the design of the systems (assuming -- and it's a hell of an assumption, I will admit -- that they were being operated correctly). But it seems that they has a single point mode of failure in that a plant power outage would shut down the cooling system. No matter from what source, it is foreseeable that any number of things could cause a plant power outage. That should be designed around. It's a fundamental flaw, not something you patch up by installing generators.

The potential defendants, as I understand it would be GE, Hitachi, EBASCO (now Raytheon Engineers and Constructors). Construction was by Kajima.

If indeed faulty design played a major role, I think the designers should be on the hook for some of the damage.

Who's to say what a faulty design is. The nuclear age is just but 65 years old. Reactors weren't being built, I would imagine, until the 1970's. Other than Three Mile Island and Chernobal, what other practical evidence of "faulty" do we have. There are only enough data points collected to modestly predict what is good and what is bad design.

I don't think they should have put four reactors in the same basic spot. That in and of itself is seems less than brilliant.

I read in I think the WSJ yesterday there is some question as to whether the plants were being operated correctly. That is absolutely diabolical if that is the truth.

[pjorourke]

Originally Posted by OliviaHoward

I don't think they should have put four reactors in the same basic spot. That in and of itself is seems less than brilliant.

Thats done because they have a LOT of common infrastructure -- inexpensive stuff like security, transmission lines, waste disposal, etc.

Almost every nuclear plant has multiple units (as they are called)