“Great, send your money here.”

“You do have a ship, right?”

“Well…”

From the little information that can be gleaned from these published reports, it appears this entire fiasco was the result of some entrepreneurial marketing maven who seemed to know nothing about the cruise ship industry, or maritime affairs, or world shipping practices, or any other marine interests or realities. It appears some guy rented an office, started marketing, and subbed out all the technical “details” (like acquiring ships, crews, harbor time, catering, etc) to subcontractors. Its the fantasy of modern business, you don’t really need to know anything about your product, your customers, your competition, your suppliers–all you need is a clever businessman, a good executive, a skilled manager, and you can hire all the expertise you need to put together the whole operation on borrowed money, and the receipts from your first few customers. Its the business major mentality, if you can run a chain of supermarkets, then you can just as easily run an airline or a railroad or a silver mine. The actual product or service is something that can be dumped onto drudges and worker bees, the real creative work is all in the front office.

Everyone else is just a fucking employee.