A good point...

You make a good point, but too many people miss the focus.

Obama's words of congratulations went to the Chilean people and to the Chilean government for running this massive and successful rescue operation... and that does a serious discredit to the hundreds of volunteers (coming from no less than 14 countries other than Chile) and the donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars from private, non-governmental individuals and companies. This effort is seen by many as a text-book example of how efficiently a central authority can manage a crisis, but in many respects, what the Chileans did right was to allow those individuals and companies that were volunteering to assist in the effort the ability to get the job done with no interference. They realized early on that nothing within the Chilean government was going to be instrumental in getting the miners out of the ground, and they did nothing to prevent those that COULD get them out from doing just that.

For example, no permits that would typically have been required for the effort were enforced (including work visas for the hundreds of foreign nationals working at the mine site). Now, compare that to the level of governmental interference in a crisis that the world saw in the clean up and preventive measures associated with the Gulf Oil Spill this summer. The US Federal Government wouldn't even allow the State of Louisiana to build protective reefs and berms to keep the oil off the most delicate and sensitive shores that were threatened by the oil... all in the name of "environmental protection" regulations already in place.

Proponents of "big government" will tout this as a success for their views... but it is NOT that simple. As Ryan said, this effort shows the value inherent in a system where charity and good will are valued far more when they are freely given instead of forcibly mandated... and the benefit to allowing a free market system to develop technology needed to do more than simply dig copper out of the ground.