(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



I Do Not Wish to Finance Billionaire Adventure Travel [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-22

Hi there. At the risk of sounding heartless, I’ve been hearing a lot today about the many millions of dollars it cost to find the tragically imploded submersible Titan that was taking tourists to see the ruins of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I’m very sorry to hear that people died, and am especially sorry for their families. However current estimates for the rescue effort are upwards of 6 million dollars:

www.nytimes.com/…

www.usatoday.com/…

The brunt of the cost is expected to be paid by the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the NPR piece I heard on the subject. The Coast Guard “does not ask to be paid” for rescues. The piece also casually mentioned that not only do rescue efforts cost a lot, they also can cost lives—of the rescuers.

There are also adventure tourists who are just surprisingly dumb:

Scott Van Laer, a former forest ranger in New York state's Adirondack Park, took part in more than 600 backcountry rescues, often involving visitors who were unprepared. "Most of them are so thankful to receive help, but we have people we had to rescue multiple time for the same lack of preparedness or equipment. So not everybody does get the message," Van Laer said.

The tourists on Titan paid $250,000 apiece to take the trip. Earlier this year, even richer tourists paid $55 million apiece --55 MILLION—to go on Elon Musks’s SpaceX trip to the International Space Station. Needless to say, 55 million dollars could buy a heckuva lot of good in the world.

I think it’s nice that the Coast Guard does not ask to be paid to rescue people. I’m all for adventure, heck I’ve had a few myself. Many of these people embark on their adventures in full knowledge that they may not come back alive. HOWEVER:

There should be a limit. Completely voluntary, optional, trips-for-fun that a) cost a lot, and b) are pretty dangerous, should:

1) Be taxed as a luxury at 100%. If you can afford 55 million dollars to go to space, you can afford 55 million extra to, hmm, maybe undo some of the damage you’ve done to the environment for your joyride?

2) Be required to purchase a hefty insurance package to cover your rescue if needed. Rather than counting on taxpayer-funded organizations like the Coast Guard, perhaps we should have a private rescue company that contracts for these rescues and covers the cost. Riders on the Titan had to buy insurance, but only a $100,000 policy—not nearly the cost of the rescue effort.

Again, not for every adventure. But in these high-end, high-risk cases, I say let the billionaires take care of themselves.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/22/2177033/-I-Do-Not-Wish-to-Finance-Billionaire-Adventure-Travel

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.