Comments on: THE POLITICS OF OIL http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/ Making the Connections Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:10:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Curt http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-462450 Curt Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:50:41 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-462450 I meant that Americans are better than Europeans at ACCEPTING CHANGE. Of course that is just a personal perception based on watching the news. It was at that point I wanted to make a small reccomendation to compare how a large eastern philosophy or religion treats the importance of understanding change with how it is treated by the western monotheistic traditions. Hmmm seething that mistake made me loose my train of thought. Maybe it will come back while I do some chores. Ahhh yes I remember now. I was out walking my dog when I saw a goldfinch. Then it all came back to me. But I also realize that it will be better to post it on moralobjectivity.net where no one will see it except Robert. If he thinks that it is usefull he can tell others about it. I meant that Americans are better than Europeans at ACCEPTING CHANGE. Of course that is just a personal perception based on watching the news. It was at that point I wanted to make a small reccomendation to compare how a large eastern philosophy or religion treats the importance of understanding change with how it is treated by the western monotheistic traditions.
Hmmm seething that mistake made me loose my train of thought. Maybe it will come back while I do some chores.
Ahhh yes I remember now. I was out walking my dog when I saw a goldfinch. Then it all came back to me. But I also realize that it will be better to post it on moralobjectivity.net where no one will see it except Robert. If he thinks that it is usefull he can tell others about it.

]]> By: Curt http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-462190 Curt Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:16:32 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-462190 I was thinking about some of the things that would happen in the US if gasoline taxes were raised in the US 25 cents each year until the preis of gas in the US was equal to the preis of gas in western europe. The long haul truckers would raise holy hell. At first they might not go out of bussiness becasue they could possibly just pass their increased costs on to consumers. But if the government used the increased income to rebuild the Rail infrastructure in the US then many of the long haul truckers would go out of business. This led to me thinking about unemployement. Right now it is high. But just think how much higher it would be if all of the people doing really jobs that are really not all that effecient were eliminated from the economy. One type of job that comes to mind besides long haul truckers, which would not be so needed if the rail system was decent and truckers had to pay taxes for all the damage that their trucks do to the interstates, is all the new jobs that have been created in security, which would not be needed if it were not for creating a war economy. Back in the 80s a joke about communism was how many communist workers does it take to change a light bulb? Three one to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder. Yet the US is no better than those centralized communists the system just desguises the stupidity a little more cleverly. Now gas taxes should definately be raised. Many of those long haul truckers should lose their jobs. But this is not a plan for heartlessness. No a plan would have to include what new types of jobs those truckers will have. We CAN NOT say OK you are on your own now. It is time to take local initiative. Shit their local initiative is going to be to start bringing their rifles to thier teamster union meetings. I am not sure what the plan would be to reemploy them but what I do think is a first baby step is that people have to learn to accept change. I actually think that Americans on the whole are better at that than Europeans. Now just off the top of my head I would think that some new jobs would be created in a revitalized rail industry. Some jobs woold be created moving things from railheads to final destination so in a sense some truck drivers would be switching from long haul to local haulers. That should be an improvemnt in life style to have more time with their families or friends. Then perhaps some jobs can be created by making the distance that a driver can drive limited and the number of hours limited so that more drivers have to be hired to move a product from point a to point b. That will of course no doubt cause a decrease in productivity but if stock dividends do not need to be paid that might not be a very big problem. Of course that could cause a problem for pension funds which could cause a problem for retired people but if there was some program to make sure that retired people had enough money to heat their homes if not go to Miami for the winter they should be able to live with that. Of course I imagine that there will be a few who will not heat their homes and go to Miami instead. In that TV program that Americans were unfortunately to uncultured to apprecaite called Flash Forward the detectives were using this huge board to see how all the pieces fit together. I imagine that a computer would have no trouble keeping track of everything. The program could be called Eagleeyed Oversight. Goodnight. I was thinking about some of the things that would happen in the US if gasoline taxes were raised in the US 25 cents each year until the preis of gas in the US was equal to the preis of gas in western europe. The long haul truckers would raise holy hell. At first they might not go out of bussiness becasue they could possibly just pass their increased costs on to consumers. But if the government used the increased income to rebuild the Rail infrastructure in the US then many of the long haul truckers would go out of business.
This led to me thinking about unemployement. Right now it is high. But just think how much higher it would be if all of the people doing really jobs that are really not all that effecient were eliminated from the economy. One type of job that comes to mind besides long haul truckers, which would not be so
needed if the rail system was decent and truckers had to pay taxes for all the damage that their trucks do to the interstates, is all the new jobs that have been created in security, which would not be needed if it were not for creating a war economy.
Back in the 80s a joke about communism was how many communist workers does it take to change a light bulb? Three one to hold the bulb and two to turn the ladder. Yet the US is no better than those centralized communists the system just desguises the stupidity a little more cleverly.
Now gas taxes should definately be raised. Many of those long haul truckers should lose their jobs. But this is not a plan for heartlessness. No a plan would have to include what new types of jobs those truckers will have. We CAN NOT say OK you are on your own now. It is time to take local initiative. Shit their local initiative is going to be to start bringing their rifles to thier teamster union meetings.
I am not sure what the plan would be to reemploy them but what I do think is a first baby step is that people have to learn to accept change. I actually think that Americans on the whole are better at that than Europeans.
Now just off the top of my head I would think that some new jobs would be created in a revitalized rail industry. Some jobs woold be created moving things from railheads to final destination so in a sense some truck drivers would be switching from long haul to local haulers. That should be an improvemnt in life style to have more time with their families or friends.
Then perhaps some jobs can be created by making the distance that a driver can drive limited and the number of hours limited so that more drivers have to be hired to move a product from point a to point b. That will of course no doubt cause a decrease in productivity but if stock dividends do not need to be paid that might not be a very big problem. Of course that could cause a problem for pension funds which could cause a problem for retired people but if there was some program to make sure that retired people had enough money to heat their homes if not go to Miami for the winter they should be able to live with that.
Of course I imagine that there will be a few who will not heat their homes and go to Miami instead.
In that TV program that Americans were unfortunately to uncultured to apprecaite called Flash Forward the detectives were using this huge board to see how all the pieces fit together. I imagine that a computer would have no trouble keeping track of everything. The program could be called Eagleeyed Oversight. Goodnight.

]]> By: Lisa http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-31435 Lisa Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:17:32 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-31435 Excellent article on the dollar regime at: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SAL20061015&articleId=3490 Excellent article on the dollar regime at:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SAL20061015&articleId=3490

]]> By: ld http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-26556 ld Thu, 28 Sep 2006 09:52:18 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-26556 I attended a talk by Klare in 2004 in Knoxville, TN. Klare was followed by a research scientist with (the notoriously eco-criminalistic) Oak Ridge National Labs, who trotted out the usual fantasies of hydrogen fuel cell-"powered" (ha!) mini-SUV's and fountains spurting free chocolate mousse (not to mention the manifold nuclear reactors to electrolyze water for said fuel cells!). Anyway, in order to better discern Klare's stance on accumulation-for-accumulation's-sake and thermodynamic realities, during the Q&A session a comrade of mine put Klare on the spot and asked him to opine on the talk that proceeded his. Klare basically deflected the request, mumbling something about the urgent necessity of committing megadollars to alternative/renewable R&D (how nice for Oak Ridge!), but refusing to remark on the inevitable demise of capitalist (or socialist for that matter) "growth." My impression is that he is certainly familiar with the line that peak oil equals the throttling of accumulation and may well subscribe to this line himself, but in a misguided attempt at being "politically realistic" and not wanting to sound like an "apocalyptic crackpot," will not betray his private convictions in public venues. As Stan indicates, nonetheless Klare's analyses are good for many things, including his increasingly profound understanding of the fact that US geostrategy since the 1990's has been geared largely (however incompetently!) toward preventing Sino-Russian security and economic cooperation. This is a big improvement over the Klare I witnessed two years ago, who came across as a stupid or naive (or both) green liberal when implying that US imperialism is reducible to its dependence on foreign strategic resources... a stupid and naive (or both) position shared by about 9/10 of US imperialism's domestic critics, well-intentioned though they may be. LD Akita, Japan I attended a talk by Klare in 2004 in Knoxville, TN.
Klare was followed by a research scientist with (the notoriously eco-criminalistic) Oak Ridge National Labs,
who trotted out the usual fantasies of hydrogen fuel cell-”powered” (ha!) mini-SUV’s and fountains spurting free chocolate mousse (not to mention the manifold nuclear reactors to electrolyze water for said fuel cells!). Anyway, in order to better discern Klare’s stance on accumulation-for-accumulation’s-sake and thermodynamic realities, during the Q&A session a comrade of mine put Klare on the spot and asked him to opine on the talk that proceeded his. Klare basically deflected the request, mumbling something about the urgent necessity of committing megadollars to alternative/renewable R&D (how nice for Oak Ridge!), but refusing to remark on the inevitable demise of capitalist (or socialist for that matter) “growth.” My impression is that he is certainly familiar with the line that peak oil equals the throttling of accumulation and may well subscribe to this line himself, but in a misguided attempt at being “politically realistic” and not wanting to sound like an “apocalyptic crackpot,” will not betray his private convictions in public venues.

As Stan indicates, nonetheless Klare’s analyses are good for many things, including his increasingly profound understanding of the fact that US geostrategy since the 1990′s has been geared largely (however incompetently!) toward preventing Sino-Russian security and economic cooperation. This is a big improvement over the Klare I witnessed two years ago, who came across as a stupid or naive (or both) green liberal when implying that US imperialism is reducible to its dependence on foreign strategic resources… a stupid and naive (or both) position shared by about 9/10 of US imperialism’s domestic critics, well-intentioned though they may be.

LD
Akita, Japan

]]> By: Stan http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-26469 Stan Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:33:37 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-26469 Wooohooo! Yer back! Funny how Klare and others who accept that we are hitting peak production still don't get it about capitalism's inescapably entropic dimensions. Main reason I posted this is because he has some good rebuttal points about the recent drop in prices. Good to have you back, De. Wooohooo! Yer back!

Funny how Klare and others who accept that we are hitting peak production still don’t get it about capitalism’s inescapably entropic dimensions.

Main reason I posted this is because he has some good rebuttal points about the recent drop in prices.

Good to have you back, De.

]]> By: DeAnander http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-26456 DeAnander Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:26:13 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-26456 I didn't think Klare believed in the Energy Fairy, but I have to agree with Gary that this "new energy system" is symptomatic of deep denial -- disappointing. got a link I'll post later tonight that is relevant to Peak issues <i>and</i> to those pesky Foundling Fathers (the Deadbeat Dads of Democracy)... I didn’t think Klare believed in the Energy Fairy, but I have to agree with Gary that this “new energy system” is symptomatic of deep denial — disappointing. got a link I’ll post later tonight that is relevant to Peak issues and to those pesky Foundling Fathers (the Deadbeat Dads of Democracy)…

]]> By: Gary http://www.feralscholar.org/blog/index.php/2006/09/27/the-politics-of-oil/#comment-26433 Gary Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:02:09 +0000 http://feralscholar.org/blog/?p=382#comment-26433 Regarding the eventual inevitablity of rising oil prices, Klare concludes that "This is the world we now inhabit, and it will never get truly better until we develop an entirely new energy system based on petroleum alternatives and renewable fuels". I haven't read a great deal of his work on energy issues, but I think that most readers of Asia Times would take this to mean an entirely new energy system to simply <i>replace</i> the current one and allow industrialism to continue. And is he suggesting that things will be "better" if we somehow find this replacement and continue with the status quo? Surely he knows that the only energy system there will be left once peak oil has passed will be based on sunlight and agriculture, and that there are no alternatives to the petroleum economy. Is he avoiding the radical de facto conservation, economic collapse and agricultural future that is in store for the sake of the business class audience, or does he really believe in a "replacement" energy system? I think his "plateau" analysis is spot on, but it's time to put hopes of a post-peak replacement or alternative energy system to bed. Regarding the eventual inevitablity of rising oil prices, Klare concludes that “This is the world we now inhabit, and it will never get truly better until we develop an entirely new energy system based on petroleum alternatives and renewable fuels”. I haven’t read a great deal of his work on energy issues, but I think that most readers of Asia Times would take this to mean an entirely new energy system to simply replace the current one and allow industrialism to continue. And is he suggesting that things will be “better” if we somehow find this replacement and continue with the status quo? Surely he knows that the only energy system there will be left once peak oil has passed will be based on sunlight and agriculture, and that there are no alternatives to the petroleum economy. Is he avoiding the radical de facto conservation, economic collapse and agricultural future that is in store for the sake of the business class audience, or does he really believe in a “replacement” energy system? I think his “plateau” analysis is spot on, but it’s time to put hopes of a post-peak replacement or alternative energy system to bed.

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