NEWS: Here Come The Oiltards

Exactly what is a "fair wage"? I'm sure the Chinese workers consider working in a manufactoring plant for Wal-Mart and making twice what they would in a farm in some rural back water more than fair. And if your going from working on a farm and then making twice as much at a manufactoring plant, you're getting richer, not poorer. If you lose your job, even "for a while", you're definitely getting poorer.

No mention of the US dollar which is the main reason for exploding commodity prices. Oil has more than doubled in a year but demand certainly hasn't doubled so that doesn't explain the huge rise. What has happened is the FED has slahed the discount rate to 2% which is half the inflation rate of 4% (I look at the CPI with food and energy not the "core rate" nonsense). If you want to knock down the price of oil and food here's 2 actions that will knock it down immediately
1. Raise rates above 4%
2. Cut spending-start with getting out of Iraq and stop trying to run the world.
While China and India's economy aren't at the US level(yet), they are growing at a blistering pace because they're spending their money developing their economy while the US is chasing boogeymen all over the globe.

...
You made me cry. I had hoped my entire life I would never hear an argument as ignorant as this in my life.
You crushed me stockula, you crushed my hope that there were intelligent right wing nuts. You may have even crushed my hope that there are intelligent people in the world, period.

I hope you know how you hurt me...

/slitwrist.

The United States has a population of 300 million - less than 5% of the world's population - yet consumes 25% of the world's oil.

If the U.S. were the world's only developed country those numbers might make sense, but it isn't, not by a long shot. American habits are simply wasteful, and yet people like you blithely assert that the size of America's demand is "irrelevant."

one that encourages long-term economic growth for both payer and payee.

"Our citizens' well-being and prosperity" is based solely on the well-being and prosperity of the planet, and it is in "our own interests" to do whatever is necessary to protect it. Drilling and spilling more oil in order to keep pace with obscene, gluttonous increases in demand does nothing to achieve that end. That, smart guy, is why the lawsuits don't stop, and they're not going to.

I can say with confidence that I've never resisted ad hominems more strongly than I am resisting them right now...

ah, you must be new here. welcome to CE!

Fuck Metallica. Ungrateful corporate whores!

With a miserable new album name.

Alternatively, their products aren't purchased at all and instead, they are bought from an ethical company and the unethical company realizes it can only remain competitive by establishing a fair compensation package and and reasonable working conditions for laborers which can be achieved via cuts in executive salaries. Labor wages aren't the only source of cutting expenses. Between the President and Chairman of GM, they made over $15 million last year. How many jobs could have been saved with a little bit of that money? Jeff Immelt at GE makes $12 million/year himself but they had to lay off some 400 employees in Wisconsin this month. Round up a couple CEOs, CFOs, COOs, Chairmen, Presidents... all of the sudden, you've got a couple hundred million in extra spending money lying around!

At least if you're subsistence farming, you determine your hours, your breaks, your relationship with your boss, your working conditions. You don't die at 24 of mercury poisoning like the milliners of early 20th century New York or of radiation poisoning like the girls painting glow-in-the-dark numbers on clocks. Your inability to see past the capitalist mindset of "accumulation" is forcing you to equate relative "wages" with "quality of life".

Our consumption is great but our productivity and what we do with that energy never gets mentioned. 300 million people use that energy to produce the greatest GDP in the world and the highest standard of living for the most number of people in the world.

If we can afford the energy and use it as we see fit, what's the big deal? What do you propose? Rationing? Who would administrate that?

That's great. I'll do what I can to remind as many people as possible the reasons why their gas prices are so high; because people like you don't give a damn about people like them.

Is the productivity proportional to the consumption? If not, it would be better used somewhere where it might be.

Somebody's never heard of supply and demand.

The reason their gas prices are so high will be staring you in the face. Each and every American and their rate of consumption is the reason gas prices are so high.

*is fully aware that he contributes to this as well. I don't complain about gas prices though, although I do wish there were alternate fuels.

If we can afford the energy and use it as we see fit, we might end life as we know it for many.

yes, but if the end of humanity is going to happen, it wont happen in this fidcal year. so stockula wont care.

No, but ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and replacing gas-guzzling SUVs with more fuel-efficient vehicles and better public transport would be a nice start.

I checked out the National Energy Authority of Iceland. Iceland doesn't get 99% of its power from geothermal plants. Only 20% of its electricity is generated using geothermal. However, the other 80% is generated using hydropower.

About 90% of homes are heated with geothermal energy.

Furthermore, Iceland only uses a small amount of its hyropower and geothermal potential.

However, according to the Geothermal Energy Association, the United States is the world's top producer of geothermal power, with geothermal being the third largest source of domestic energy. Still paltry, though--we have a lot more people than Iceland, so our percentages aren't as good; less than 1% of our electric supply.

Most production is in the West, and there's a strong push to get more plants online. So we're apparently making some progress.

We had a teleconference with one of our senators in Ky a while back. The man was obviously for offshore drilling. You could not believe the amount of Democrat bashing he did. He avoided real questions and answered the ones that were in favor of the drilling. My dad and I both took part in, and voted no, both of us had questions and were never selected to ask them. I disagree whole heartedly with offshore drilling. There are different and more economical ways of producing energy. I'm glad you wrote this, so that now more people will know what the truth is about drilling offshore.

Such as?

No, the Kyoto Protocol is a complete fraud. Countries that did sign it have increased their CO2 emissions and have had to pay billions of dollars in penalties for doing so. The USA which was the target of the Kyoto Protocols has reduced its CO2 emissions, voluntarily, without the penalizing Kyoto scheme.

Not that it matters, because human industry does not change the climate.