Oil prices EXPLODED this week, and
As George Carlin would say: "That is what someone might call being STUNNINGLY full of sh-t!"
From the above link:
Let me translate: Oil EXPORTERS should charge their citizens world MARKET rates for Oil so that the U.S., with 4.65 % of the world's population can continue to consume 25% of the world's oil! Look, I am a capitalist pig out to exploit the masses American... and PROUD to be one... BUT! Earth to Secretary Bodman: There is NOTHING you can do that is going to change the very simple fact that within a decade or so the U.S., with 5% of the world's population will be consuming only 5% of the world's oil! That's it! Live with it! Now, here is what you establishment dimwits in D.C. need to do:
- Declare an IMMEDIATE moratorium on ALL road and airport building and expansion.
- Begin an IMMEDIATE work project to construct a functioning electric train system between the big cities.
- Shut down ALL private and corporate jet and yacht use by enacting HUGE taxes on the fuel to power these things. It is going to be very hard, politically, to explain why 50,000 poor senior citizens FROZE TO DEATH one winter soon, while others are too "important" to fly coach. Steven Spielberg's comfort is not as important as the WWII vet with 2 purple hearts living in a mobile home in Wisconsin and freezing his ass off.
- Create tax incentives to encourage more agricultural production in the Northeast. This is where the population is. In order to cut food miles, food will have to be grown there, or we will have to move the people out. Take your pick. The more food produced using organic methods, the less risk we place on our system. We need to produce more food absent fertilizers.
- Revamp our silly justice system. I don't care if Eliot Spitzer got it for free or paid $5000 for it (although I love the smell of former prosecutor cooking in the morning). For those that do care, send them the bill for the investigation, the energy the investigation consumed, and Justice Department Lawyer salaries. We don't have a choice anymore. We are going to have to decriminalize many distasteful things, and let the cards fall where they may. We simply will not have the money OR the Oil to keep 2 million people in prison for non violent crimes.
- De-regulate and SHRINK the F---king government for goodness sake!!! Government employees are a burden on the rest of us - and we are about to be severely overburdened with other problems. We need a budget surplus, and we have a budget deficit. What exactly does the Department of Education do? Not much, going by student test scores for math and science.
- Decrease the number of slots in Law Schools by 75%!! Why does the U.S. have the highest percentage of lawyers per capita in the WORLD? (no offense to you lawyers, I feel the same about stock brokers and investment bankers, yours truly's chosen profession). Stop the litigation wave, before it begins.
- Shrink the size of the military while you still have the money and the fuel to bring them back home. Tell Europe and Japan to pay for their own defense. Stop fighting over something that is going to disappear soon anyway.
Now folks, I firmly we believe that our Government will do none of the above, at least not until it is too late. You are going to have to take care of yourselves and your family on your own.
Good luck.
Mentatt (at) yahoo (d0t) com
7 comments:
actually, the amerikan military industrial complex WASTES more energy than the rest of entire world put together consumes!
we also have 70-80% of the worlds resources, as in scrap metal, wood by products, and plastics going into our garbage dumps.
the great amerikan dream, or what's left of it, is about raping mother earth like no tommorrow.
well WALL STREET is finished without cheap oil, and the GOV'T is goin' to solve the problem by printing money and raising taxes.
har! what a joke...
Much of the problem is that energy is wasted in vast amounts - SUV's, McMansions, leaving lights on, mowing 2-acres of lawn....the list goes on.
The oil problem is as much a social engineering problem as it is a geologic one.
Of course, few people want to hear that. They want their toys. And they want to continue a gluttonous unsustainable lifestyle.
The market is knocking many to their senses, forcing them to reconsider the wasteful ways of the past.
It's about time and the best thing that can happen.
It is funny to read yet another 'here is what needs to be done' rant. Many many many good smart people have all listed the actions that need to be taken. It is funny because none of these actions has been taken, and none of these actions will be taken. The current 'system' is based on human nature, and human nature does not change.
"We have only two modes: complacency and panic." - James R. Schlesinger
"actually, the amerikan military industrial complex WASTES more energy than the rest of entire world put together consumes!
we also have 70-80% of the worlds resources, as in scrap metal, wood by products, and plastics going into our garbage dumps."
Proving yet again, "There are lies, Damn lies, and statistics".
The US, in ALL of it's endeavors, uses about 25% of the world's oil production. I have no idea how much the "military industrial complex" uses of that 25%, but that leaves 75% that the rest of the world is using.
Do we use a lot more per capita that the rest of the world....yep.
But nowhere NEAR the bullshit statement above.
As to the "70-80%" figure on resources.....again.....just a figure pulled out of thin air.
We surely DO waste a lot and send it to landfills ( though very little metal ends up there.....you must have missed out on the fact that virtually EVERY metal is worth enough that scrapyards are doing a booming business )and need to do better, but to say that kind of figure is, again, pure bullshit.
Hi Greg
I agree with what you propose, but no government will implement it because the power of democracy is that the selfishness of the individual is the mandate of the government.
But the market - THAT'S the power here. The US uses 25% of the oil and will end up using 5% of the oil only because both the country, and the individuals in it, can't afford to pay for the rest.
The government will be left trying to package up and sell that reality to their electorate. God help them!
Few people realise how fast this is going to pan out. All you can do is to keep telling them, and hope that somebody out there is listening.
Thank you for your comments.
Hey Don, I think the primary motivation of denial at the Federal Level is that the effects on the US$ and the financial markets to ANY admission of a permanent decline in Oil imports into the U.S. would be catastrophic. No one wants to be the "Man in Charge" when this occurs.
And there you have it. At the risk of sounding shrill and alarmist, this is very much like climbing Mt. Everest - for anything and everything, this is self rescue.
Dammit, stop making sense!!! You know that's not allowed! Any further comments such as this will get you a one way ticket to the gulag, understand? Sheesh, the nerve of some people.
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