These are pretty silly analogies, which certainly don't apply to this situation.

But the thread here is interesting because, with costly man-made disasters we are somewhat between "a rock and a hard place". The media hollered from day about who would pay. The administration answered, BP, Transocean etc. Some congressmen may be grandstanding with that answer, but it's still the fair answer. The problem comes when the private corporation raises prices to pay for the damage. Is that always what will happen? Perhaps not. The free market will theoretically prevent BP from raising their price significantly, no longer making them competitive. That is unless they conspire with their competitors and they all raise their prices. Here's where it gets tricky. If we had a "big" enough government, the administration would have the mechanisms to regulate these huge companies to 1) have all reasonable means in place to prevent or cap oil spills, and 2) prevent price fixing.

So, this a a good example of where "big government" might be the only means by which we could prevent the public from eevntually having to foot the multi-billion dollar bill to repair and compensate victims. It's situations like this and the banking mess which allow me to stretch my ideology in that cursed "liberal" direction.