...reimburse the U.S. govt. $780,000. for the cost of the Coast Guard rescuing one of their cruise ships because they say it's a "tradition" for ships to help other ships in trouble on the seas.
Also, Carnival pays little or no federal taxes according to Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
"Corporations are people, my friend" said Mitt Romney and Supreme Court conservative justices. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
and when you call 911 for an emergency you always pay the EMS team, and when you get lost in Yellowstone and the park service sends in the US search and rescue team you always repay them, because you are not a "deadbeat", right?
Oh, you say it's different when corporations are involved. Ok the Coast Guard made over 43,000 responses to distress calls in 2011 alone. Many of these calls were to ships owned by corporations. How many of those corporations repaid the Coast Guard that you can name?
Um..that's not very good.
Carnival certainly deserves a lot of criticism but let's not criticize them for not doing something that no one else - including yourself - does either.
...pay, it goes to a collection agency, just as with any other deadbeat who doesn't pay. If B.H. charges, don't you think other cities do as well?
Govt. rescue services determine the reason why a search is necessary. If the rescued parties were guilty of gross stupidity, they WILL get billed for the cost of the rescue.
in Beverly Hills has got to be among the highest in the country. Plus many states allocate a portion of the property tax to pay for EMS services and we all know you don't do that in California.
So I would guess that B.H. is the exception to the rule and you will not find the Dogpatch EMS and its ilk billing for its services.
Now as to Carnival they did pay 1% on some 11 or 12 billion in fed taxes over the last five years according to the NY Times which isn't much but that's true of many big multi national corporations including G.E. I have to assume Carnival does pay fed corporate income tax on taxable income earned in the U.S.
Never been on a cruise myself -I'm kind of a landlubber - so I'm not sure how they manage to pull that one off when a US citizen books a cruise with a US port pickup and delivery. Maybe they don't make you pay until you cross the 12 mile line and contend that most of the services are provided outside the US coastal limits but I can't believe that would work.
is a moot point. Mickey Arison, the Chairman of Carnival, is the epitome of a prick. He is one cheap asshole.
Logic says you do whatever is necessary to rebuild lost customer trust. How many accidents have they had over the past few months? Shhh, they also owned that capsized ship in Italy. It's $780K. It's a rounding error on their balance sheet. But the amount of goodwill, and "do the right thing" would actually make that $780K a good investment.
So yes mari, Carnival doesn't have to reimburse. No I don't have to reimburse first responders for the cheese fondue accident I had this weekend. It's just the right thing to do.
They even teach you this shit in college. But Arison was born a prick, and will die a prick.
P.S. When RCCL and the cruise lines start to taking share from Carnival, watch them dramatically reduce prices to gain back customers. $780K is not a lot of money.
If Saint says someone is a prick, then wow, he must be a fucking prick. I imagine Arison is the sort of person who bites babies.
and moved to Israel to avoid paying estate taxes on his billions, so they are kind of like - wasn't it one of the Facebook guys who moved to Singapore to avoid US taxes.
But while at first glance I'd agree with you that repayment is the "right thing to do," isn't it more complicated than that? Carnival is a public corporation and voluntary payments for US Coast Guard services - and they use these services on a yearly basis at a cost way over this particular accident -
would be a major annual cost. They would have to explain to shareholders who wouldn't like it.
Fortunately, I was too sharp to invest in Carnival and invested in Dryships instead...sign. But let me know when you do the road show for your "cheese fondue to go" IPO. I want to get in early before the profits start to melt.
and their upcoming shareholder mtg. Here is a snippet from the article
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller accused Arison of "bloodsucking off the American people" and being "treacherous and wrong" in continually relying on the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coastguard to spend millions of taxpayer dollars rushing to the aid of Carnival's 90 marine accidents in the last 5 years, when the company pays just 0.6 percent in tax on its profits because it's registered off-shore, according to analysis commissioned by NBC's Rock Center.
Mari, whether I'm a shareholder, or Director of PR for Carnival, "bloodsucking" and "treacherous" are words I don't want to hear. Ever hear of the phrase, "make this go away"? Don't lawyers use that phrase all the time.
Dryships? I'm trying not to laugh.
when the NY Mets play the Colorado Rockies.
Aaron Laffey, is still in the lineup after a horrible outing against the offensively challenged Miami Marlins a few days ago. Laffey barely made it through four innings before getting the hook in the fifth, gave up ten hits and three runs.
I've been waiting for him to get a start since then, just to have the pleasure of betting against him. He'll be facing Jeff Francis, who also has a WHIP of almost 2, so hopefully there will be some value to the bet.
See who says there is nothing to bet on until football season?
As for Carnival, they are a shit cruise line and this is just the latest PR nightmare they have faced in the last few years. While it's true that no one else pays the Coast Guard either, this may just set precedence and all negligent boat owners may be getting bills for being rescued from their own stupidity. I agree that $780K to the Coast Guard is the lest of their worries right now.
Oh Christ the Marlins. The 2nd worst owner in the greater Miami area is Jeffery Loria. Talk about gutting a team. I'm a big fan of Giancarlo Stanton because he is a local SoCal kid, but he is in a no win situation. That kid can hit the shit out of the ball.
Did you watch a replay of the LA/SD brawl a few days ago? Good, but not anywhere near the Mexico/Canada brawl in the WBC. Even Canadian baseball players fight like hockey players. Mexican players had no chance.
Hey...go make fun of mari and his Dryships investment. Go look at a chart first.
Does calling Canadians "Canuks" make me as big a racist as you? Would it help if I called the Mexicans "beaners"??? lol
Let me go look at Dryships, I'll be back.
BTW "Laffey" let the Marlins, arguably the worst team in baseball, tag him for 10 hits. Even if he were named Marikod, I'd still be betting against him, ok maybe I'd bet even more. lol
It's one thing for a citizenry to have 911 services or fire fighters. It's quite another to have to send out an entire team from the US military to rescue a big ass boat that was stranded at sea.
It's not terribly uncommon for people to have to pay for these things. If someone files a fake police report about a missing person, and they have to bring out a team to drag a lake, would any of us be surprised if that person was sued and order to repay the police for expenses?
The same would apply with Carnival, I'd imagine. Would the Coast Guard have to spend that much money rescuing a single ship if Carnival conducted better inspections of their ships?
I dunno who's legally liable here, but the right thing to do in my mind is for Carnival to pay up.
-- Modified on 4/14/2013 7:12:08 PM
But all corporations rely on the fire department and police without being billed for the services. So the only difference I see for legitimate calls is the cost is much higher.
And you will note that the Coast Guard has not even billed Carnival for the services. They provide search and rescue for free. That is what they do.
But, it seems to me that we as a society are far less inclined to pay for certain public services, if paying for them is unreasonable.
Did Carnival not violate any safety rules? I'm not even sure if that question is important or not. It just seems to me that having to drag an entire cruise ship to shore because Carnival's ship fucking broke is a rather unusal thing to demand the tax payers to foot the bill for. I mean, Jesus, is there even a precedent for this sort of thing?
As Mari said, it's what the Coast Guard does. Do you really think that Carnival is the first cruise line to use the Coast Guard as a maritime version of Triple A?
Idiots both large and small need rescuing at sea every day. Carnival is a horrible cruise line, but $780,000 is a drop in the bucket for both Carnival, and the Coast Guard, but maybe it shouldn't be?
-- Modified on 4/14/2013 8:30:06 PM
are trying to compare Admiralty law and International Maritime law to civil law and the two are so very different.
You’re Welcom
Yes, they played a part but the U.S. Coast Guard is not in the business of performing the type of rescue the Triumph needed.
The CG did airlift an emergency generator to insure the safety of the passengers. They also dispatched the Cutter Vigorous. The Vigorous escorted the Triumph back to port, standing by to insure there would be assistance available should any additional passenger's safety become an issue.
The CG does not regularly engage in activities that commercial shipping maintenance companies can provide. The bulk of the rescue of the Triumph was provided by 5 commercial tugs. Carnival lines paid for most of the actual rescue.
It would be interesting to see how Senator Rockefeller came up with the $780K figure.
-- Modified on 4/14/2013 8:26:42 PM
the cost paid to Resolve Salvage for the tow was paid by Carnival , they Carnival will file a P&I insurance claim along with a claim for most if not all the repairs and clean up. It will be a complicated claim and will take time to settle but Carnival will most likely recoup most if not all towing and shipyard costs, less deductable ...of course
Thank you
2013 = 2
...be surprised if their GOP friends track you down using the Patriot Act and you will find yourself no longer a card-carrying Republican. The party brooks no dissent!!
I provided a reasoned, honest and on topic response but then in true BP/TER tradition you attempt to sidetrack things by making personal remarks regarding me.
The Coast Guard did not rescue the Triumph. Resolve Salvage of Fort Lauderdale was hired by Carnival to do the salvage operation.
Resolve sent several tugs to tow the vessel. Resolve also had its own helicopter lift provisions, water, generators and other material to the Triumph.
The Coast guard did dispatch vessels to the area, thereby incurring costs, but did not rescue the vessel. My opinion is that Carnival should reimburse the CG, however based on what I know of the situation and circumstances of the CG involvement, under Admiralty law Carinval is not required to do so.
Funny you are the one to bring this up because
It is like Carnival is stabbing them in the back.
You’re Welcome
For God and Countr
When I was in the Navy, flying search and rescue out of Pensacola, Fl, we were often sent out to rescue crew members on shrimp boats, yachts and other assorted vessels. We needed to have so many fight and training hours per month, so it was much more production doing actual rescues we were trained for than to simply flying around, and at best cruising the beaches warning swimmers of near by sand sharks. So, some of the expenses incurred when rescuing cruise ships may not be that much over the top of what would have been spent in training. Though, I have duly noted Saints calling out the company's head as being a major prick and cheapskate. 