Rich folk and their (dangerous) toys
Issue #350 OpEd June 26, 2023
Last week, the story of the five extraordinarily wealthy folk who could afford the cost of $250,000 apiece to ride in a submersible named the Titan down, down, down deep to view the wreckage of another famous seagoing vessel named the Titanic (also built to transport extraordinarily wealthy people on an excursion) was the headline of all headlines.
People from all around the world were watching breathlessly to find out what had happened once contact was lost with the Titan and whether the passengers would be found…or would die.
They died.
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And yes, it’s a tragedy. Just because the passengers were rich, and could afford bigger and better toys to engage in what might appear to many of us to be the ridiculous, wasteful folly that siphoned away millions of dollars trying to save them from a trip that should never have been taken doesn’t mean they deserved the fate they got. So it’s too bad.
But when you compare that story - and the obsessive coverage of it - to the fate of the roughly 700 (brown) people who died aboard a disabled fishing trawler off the Greek coast, poor people who were trying to reach a better life for themselves…?
Yeah, well, it really doesn’t compare, does it? And when you add in the fact that there was never really much of a chance to rescue the wealthy folk, but millions were spent trying to rescue them anyway, whereas the Greek Coast Guard is now being investigated for the very questionable way they responded to the sordid course of events (they didn’t respond at all) that led to mass drownings, you do really have to wonder what does it take to become a worthwhile news story these days?
Except that you don’t have to wonder. Not really. Because of course millions were spent to try and rescue the five folks on the Titan. Why? Because each of them paid $250,000 for the ride, that’s why. That made them ‘worth it’ in the world we live in.
So you’re damned right you’d better - somebody had better - spend all available resources trying to rescue these rich people. Because these are rich people in peril, dammit.
As for the obsessive coverage? Once again, an easy call; this was what is known as a ‘sexy’ news story. Meaning a story that more people will read and/or watch. Oh, and click on, of course.
So on one hand you have five rich folks on this really cool submersible headed deep down into the mysterious darkness of the ocean to view the Titanic! I mean, how cool is that, right? And think of the visuals. Hell, this is a story that practically writes itself for crying out loud. Words jumping off the page and all that.
But on the other hand, all you have is a bunch of poor migrant folks - poor brown migrant folks - getting themselves killed again trying to better their lives.
I mean, how many times must we read this same story, right? Poor people in poor circumstances meet poor people’s fates.
Plus, and this really must be said, none of them paid $250,000 for the trip, right? So, I mean, was their story really worth it? Were they really worth it?
Were they really sexy enough?
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