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#1
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But of course none of this will have any impact on boating
Harry Krause wrote: Ignatius Thistlewhite wrote: You wrote: HoustonChronicle.com April 19, 2006, 10:21PM ENERGY Rising crude oil prices splash over $72 a barrel - - - Time for regime change...here. Your posts seem to suggest strong support for Democrats. Since that party has been a proponent of prohibitive tax increases on energy, your argument seems to be purely partisan rather than the product of principle. I support the idea of a tax increase on gasoline if it will be used to directly support significant R&D aimed at weaning us off oil. I also believe the $70+ a barrel we're now facing is a number reached because the oil cartels know the Bush administration won't even *try* to do anything about it. You're looking for a technological answer to an issue that is primarily about lifestyle choices. The vast majority of us insist on traveling everywhere by private automobile, and it isn't unusual these days for a family unit with a common address to have 2 or 3 cars on the road at the same time. The majority of Americans prefer to live in Disneyesque suburbs, (places that exist only to serve as bedroom communities for commuters), than in actual cities with employment and commercial opportunities. They all need to get from their couple thousand square feet of lawn (and their privacy fences that foster the illusion they aren't really living in a horizontal hive) into town so they can convert their labor into the mortgage payments that prevent the true owner from kicking them out of their little look alike cell. Some of these horizontal hive dwellers spend no more than 2-3 waking hours in their patch of paradise on an average weekday, given 9 hour work days and 2-hours in a traffic jam every morning and evening. Why adapt technology simply to allow the continuation of a broken model for a few more generations? Why do we need technology to move people from bedrooms 40-50 miles out of town into their daily workplace? The basic premise makes no sense. Then there are boaters. I operate a boat that gets about 4 nmpg and that's ridiclously efficient among powerboats. Am I going to give up my boat to save "society" 300 gallons of diesel per year? Frankly, "Nope." Are the suburbanities going to rediscover the joys of urban living and return to the city? Probably not. If we are going to wean ourselves off of oil, any time soon, it will have to be a result of changing the way we live not the technology that allows us to live that way. I think that's something most people probably realize but are reluctant to admit. I'm sure we'd all like to see the "other guy" reduce his use of oil, merely to ensure a continued supply for our personal consumption. Much as I hate to see the high prices for refined producs and resent the fact that BIG OIL is pocketing nearly all of the increase in the form of robber-baron profits, it's the current high price and the future higher prices for gas, diesel, home heating oil, etc that will bring about the needed lifestyle changes much more quickly than any government program would ever modify technology. As my friends who often hold differing opinions on things are often heard to say, "Keep government out of it, and let the free market dictate how society operates." We're watching the free market argument (minus any meaningful competition and with the major suppliers in tacit collusion) play out right before our eyes. I think the conservatives are right on this one: The free market profiteering will do more to change our lifestyles than any government regulation ever could. Sadly enough, it's the very lifestyle enjoyed by so many of the free market proponents that will be most badly damaged by the change. |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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But of course none of this will have any impact on boating
wrote in message oups.com... Harry Krause wrote: Ignatius Thistlewhite wrote: You wrote: HoustonChronicle.com April 19, 2006, 10:21PM ENERGY Rising crude oil prices splash over $72 a barrel - - - Time for regime change...here. Your posts seem to suggest strong support for Democrats. Since that party has been a proponent of prohibitive tax increases on energy, your argument seems to be purely partisan rather than the product of principle. I support the idea of a tax increase on gasoline if it will be used to directly support significant R&D aimed at weaning us off oil. I also believe the $70+ a barrel we're now facing is a number reached because the oil cartels know the Bush administration won't even *try* to do anything about it. You're looking for a technological answer to an issue that is primarily about lifestyle choices. The vast majority of us insist on traveling everywhere by private automobile, and it isn't unusual these days for a family unit with a common address to have 2 or 3 cars on the road at the same time. The majority of Americans prefer to live in Disneyesque suburbs, (places that exist only to serve as bedroom communities for commuters), than in actual cities with employment and commercial opportunities. They all need to get from their couple thousand square feet of lawn (and their privacy fences that foster the illusion they aren't really living in a horizontal hive) into town so they can convert their labor into the mortgage payments that prevent the true owner from kicking them out of their little look alike cell. Some of these horizontal hive dwellers spend no more than 2-3 waking hours in their patch of paradise on an average weekday, given 9 hour work days and 2-hours in a traffic jam every morning and evening. Why adapt technology simply to allow the continuation of a broken model for a few more generations? Why do we need technology to move people from bedrooms 40-50 miles out of town into their daily workplace? The basic premise makes no sense. Then there are boaters. I operate a boat that gets about 4 nmpg and that's ridiclously efficient among powerboats. Am I going to give up my boat to save "society" 300 gallons of diesel per year? Frankly, "Nope." Are the suburbanities going to rediscover the joys of urban living and return to the city? Probably not. If we are going to wean ourselves off of oil, any time soon, it will have to be a result of changing the way we live not the technology that allows us to live that way. I think that's something most people probably realize but are reluctant to admit. I'm sure we'd all like to see the "other guy" reduce his use of oil, merely to ensure a continued supply for our personal consumption. Much as I hate to see the high prices for refined producs and resent the fact that BIG OIL is pocketing nearly all of the increase in the form of robber-baron profits, it's the current high price and the future higher prices for gas, diesel, home heating oil, etc that will bring about the needed lifestyle changes much more quickly than any government program would ever modify technology. As my friends who often hold differing opinions on things are often heard to say, "Keep government out of it, and let the free market dictate how society operates." We're watching the free market argument (minus any meaningful competition and with the major suppliers in tacit collusion) play out right before our eyes. I think the conservatives are right on this one: The free market profiteering will do more to change our lifestyles than any government regulation ever could. Sadly enough, it's the very lifestyle enjoyed by so many of the free market proponents that will be most badly damaged by the change. This should make your blood boil: from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireS...&business=true DALLAS Apr 15, 2006 (AP)- A $69.7 million compensation package and $98 million pension payout to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s former chief executive and chairman Lee R. Raymond has some shareholders and economists asking, "how much is enough?" "Some folks will ask the question, 'Is this more evidence of big oil taking an enormous windfall and retaining all the riches?'" said Mel Fugate, assistant professor for Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. Exxon benefited from high oil and natural gas prices and solid demand for refined products en route to earning $36 billion last year. The company has defended its profits, saying that other industries have larger profit margins but oil companies' bottom lines stand out because they operate on a much larger scale. |
#3
posted to rec.boats
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But of course none of this will have any impact on boating
" JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... Harry Krause wrote: Ignatius Thistlewhite wrote: You wrote: HoustonChronicle.com April 19, 2006, 10:21PM ENERGY Rising crude oil prices splash over $72 a barrel - - - Time for regime change...here. Your posts seem to suggest strong support for Democrats. Since that party has been a proponent of prohibitive tax increases on energy, your argument seems to be purely partisan rather than the product of principle. I support the idea of a tax increase on gasoline if it will be used to directly support significant R&D aimed at weaning us off oil. I also believe the $70+ a barrel we're now facing is a number reached because the oil cartels know the Bush administration won't even *try* to do anything about it. You're looking for a technological answer to an issue that is primarily about lifestyle choices. The vast majority of us insist on traveling everywhere by private automobile, and it isn't unusual these days for a family unit with a common address to have 2 or 3 cars on the road at the same time. The majority of Americans prefer to live in Disneyesque suburbs, (places that exist only to serve as bedroom communities for commuters), than in actual cities with employment and commercial opportunities. They all need to get from their couple thousand square feet of lawn (and their privacy fences that foster the illusion they aren't really living in a horizontal hive) into town so they can convert their labor into the mortgage payments that prevent the true owner from kicking them out of their little look alike cell. Some of these horizontal hive dwellers spend no more than 2-3 waking hours in their patch of paradise on an average weekday, given 9 hour work days and 2-hours in a traffic jam every morning and evening. Why adapt technology simply to allow the continuation of a broken model for a few more generations? Why do we need technology to move people from bedrooms 40-50 miles out of town into their daily workplace? The basic premise makes no sense. Then there are boaters. I operate a boat that gets about 4 nmpg and that's ridiclously efficient among powerboats. Am I going to give up my boat to save "society" 300 gallons of diesel per year? Frankly, "Nope." Are the suburbanities going to rediscover the joys of urban living and return to the city? Probably not. If we are going to wean ourselves off of oil, any time soon, it will have to be a result of changing the way we live not the technology that allows us to live that way. I think that's something most people probably realize but are reluctant to admit. I'm sure we'd all like to see the "other guy" reduce his use of oil, merely to ensure a continued supply for our personal consumption. Much as I hate to see the high prices for refined producs and resent the fact that BIG OIL is pocketing nearly all of the increase in the form of robber-baron profits, it's the current high price and the future higher prices for gas, diesel, home heating oil, etc that will bring about the needed lifestyle changes much more quickly than any government program would ever modify technology. As my friends who often hold differing opinions on things are often heard to say, "Keep government out of it, and let the free market dictate how society operates." We're watching the free market argument (minus any meaningful competition and with the major suppliers in tacit collusion) play out right before our eyes. I think the conservatives are right on this one: The free market profiteering will do more to change our lifestyles than any government regulation ever could. Sadly enough, it's the very lifestyle enjoyed by so many of the free market proponents that will be most badly damaged by the change. This should make your blood boil: from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireS...&business=true DALLAS Apr 15, 2006 (AP)- A $69.7 million compensation package and $98 million pension payout to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s former chief executive and chairman Lee R. Raymond has some shareholders and economists asking, "how much is enough?" "Some folks will ask the question, 'Is this more evidence of big oil taking an enormous windfall and retaining all the riches?'" said Mel Fugate, assistant professor for Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. Exxon benefited from high oil and natural gas prices and solid demand for refined products en route to earning $36 billion last year. The company has defended its profits, saying that other industries have larger profit margins but oil companies' bottom lines stand out because they operate on a much larger scale. The reason it angers me is because of the money and lives we're spending as a nation to protect the key ingredient to keep our economy rolling: oil. Don't get me wrong...we need to protect our access to oil at reasonable prices. But since Exxon/Mobil is reaping the rewards bestowed upon it by the US military, US taxpayers and a sound foreign policy by our administration, they ought to "give back" to this country by providing us with cheaper gas. |
#4
posted to rec.boats
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But of course none of this will have any impact on boating
"NOYB" wrote in message nk.net... " JimH" jimh_osudad@yahooDOT comREMOVETHIS wrote in message . .. wrote in message oups.com... Harry Krause wrote: Ignatius Thistlewhite wrote: You wrote: HoustonChronicle.com April 19, 2006, 10:21PM ENERGY Rising crude oil prices splash over $72 a barrel - - - Time for regime change...here. Your posts seem to suggest strong support for Democrats. Since that party has been a proponent of prohibitive tax increases on energy, your argument seems to be purely partisan rather than the product of principle. I support the idea of a tax increase on gasoline if it will be used to directly support significant R&D aimed at weaning us off oil. I also believe the $70+ a barrel we're now facing is a number reached because the oil cartels know the Bush administration won't even *try* to do anything about it. You're looking for a technological answer to an issue that is primarily about lifestyle choices. The vast majority of us insist on traveling everywhere by private automobile, and it isn't unusual these days for a family unit with a common address to have 2 or 3 cars on the road at the same time. The majority of Americans prefer to live in Disneyesque suburbs, (places that exist only to serve as bedroom communities for commuters), than in actual cities with employment and commercial opportunities. They all need to get from their couple thousand square feet of lawn (and their privacy fences that foster the illusion they aren't really living in a horizontal hive) into town so they can convert their labor into the mortgage payments that prevent the true owner from kicking them out of their little look alike cell. Some of these horizontal hive dwellers spend no more than 2-3 waking hours in their patch of paradise on an average weekday, given 9 hour work days and 2-hours in a traffic jam every morning and evening. Why adapt technology simply to allow the continuation of a broken model for a few more generations? Why do we need technology to move people from bedrooms 40-50 miles out of town into their daily workplace? The basic premise makes no sense. Then there are boaters. I operate a boat that gets about 4 nmpg and that's ridiclously efficient among powerboats. Am I going to give up my boat to save "society" 300 gallons of diesel per year? Frankly, "Nope." Are the suburbanities going to rediscover the joys of urban living and return to the city? Probably not. If we are going to wean ourselves off of oil, any time soon, it will have to be a result of changing the way we live not the technology that allows us to live that way. I think that's something most people probably realize but are reluctant to admit. I'm sure we'd all like to see the "other guy" reduce his use of oil, merely to ensure a continued supply for our personal consumption. Much as I hate to see the high prices for refined producs and resent the fact that BIG OIL is pocketing nearly all of the increase in the form of robber-baron profits, it's the current high price and the future higher prices for gas, diesel, home heating oil, etc that will bring about the needed lifestyle changes much more quickly than any government program would ever modify technology. As my friends who often hold differing opinions on things are often heard to say, "Keep government out of it, and let the free market dictate how society operates." We're watching the free market argument (minus any meaningful competition and with the major suppliers in tacit collusion) play out right before our eyes. I think the conservatives are right on this one: The free market profiteering will do more to change our lifestyles than any government regulation ever could. Sadly enough, it's the very lifestyle enjoyed by so many of the free market proponents that will be most badly damaged by the change. This should make your blood boil: from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireS...&business=true DALLAS Apr 15, 2006 (AP)- A $69.7 million compensation package and $98 million pension payout to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s former chief executive and chairman Lee R. Raymond has some shareholders and economists asking, "how much is enough?" "Some folks will ask the question, 'Is this more evidence of big oil taking an enormous windfall and retaining all the riches?'" said Mel Fugate, assistant professor for Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. Exxon benefited from high oil and natural gas prices and solid demand for refined products en route to earning $36 billion last year. The company has defended its profits, saying that other industries have larger profit margins but oil companies' bottom lines stand out because they operate on a much larger scale. The reason it angers me is because of the money and lives we're spending as a nation to protect the key ingredient to keep our economy rolling: oil. Don't get me wrong...we need to protect our access to oil at reasonable prices. But since Exxon/Mobil is reaping the rewards bestowed upon it by the US military, US taxpayers and a sound foreign policy by our administration, they ought to "give back" to this country by providing us with cheaper gas. Which would create shortages. I would settle for the guvmint (at least here in Mich) from capping the sales tax on gas, since they are reaping far greater profits from the increased price :-) |
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