Government nationalizes industries when the public's welfare is in dire jeopardy.
America took over its railroads during World War I, power companies in the south in 1939, bankrupt railroads in 1976, failed savings and loans in the 1980s, airport secruity in 2001, mortgage companies in 2008 and Citigroup and General Motors in 2009.
Those entities were "too big to fail" and many of them also had engaged in nefarious practices or were grossly mismanaged.
Another vital industry--also too big to fail--has recklessly damaged America's environment and economy and deserves to be nationalized: Big Oil.
There is an endless list of base greed and exploitiveness by petroleum companies, leading to disastrous oil spills in Alaska and Gulf of Mexico waters because of blatant disregard for safe industry practices and the utter lack of meaningful oversight and regulation.
America needs to rigidly control the drills, derricks, pipelines and refineries that tap a resource critical its national survival. (4 JULY 2010)
