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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
 Posted - 06/30/2008 : 12:10:06
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....you are living the dream my friend. The fast rising price of oil - whatever the real reasons behind it - will tank globalization if it continues. And it will force energy efficiency like never seen before. Amazing - things you never thought you'd ever see.
I can imagine a conspiracy where in the dark board room where the Powers meet and decide the fate of the world the agreement is finally made that CO2 must be curbed. But the Big Oil Rep at the left hand of god looks around at the other shadowed faces and makes his demand.
The deal - reduced oil use but at a fantastic pay off to the industry. The mechanism - trade the price of oil through the roof, force the US and the world to react. The result - eventual vast decline in oil use, but tremendous payoff to the oil gods.
But I digress.
I recall in the early '90s an environmental policy class discussion about the ideas of some prominent environmentalists who advocated taxing the price of gas up to $5 per gallon to curb behavior and generate a pool of money to deal with the effects. Today we are living that dream, though the pool of money rests in the hands of investors, oil executives, and volatile, often hostile, foreign powers.
And globalization? If this oil bubble doesn't pop, then until there are nuclear or sail powered container ships, this globalization trend has stopped dead in its tracks. Labor saves in China can't offset the jump in fuel costs, especially in light of the falling dollar. Purchasing departments that were just a year ago working to source more and more overseas are now working up cost benefit analyses to justify sourcing local.
Short term - we pay more for everything to offset the higher shipping costs. Medium term - the manufacturing comes home to the US and Mexico, and we pay slightly less than the short term. Only slightly because we no longer have the very low cost country labor saves. Sell your Walmart stock, folks because that business model is sinking in the price of oil. Long term - well, I can think of all kinds of fun stuff involving robots, aliens, the soylent corporation, etc.... 
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-Chaloobi
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Edited by - chaloobi on 06/30/2008 12:14:20
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2008 : 15:06:50 [Permalink]
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Eventually the price will hit a spot where most people will be unable to afford gasoline. For me that will come at around $6/gallon. There are some analysts (CNBC) who predict it will be there in the next six months. That will turn me into a pedestrian/bicyclist for most things, work included.
But yeah, with diesel fuel being so expensive it isn't going to be cost effective to ship goods. If regular gas here hits 6, then diesel will be 8.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Paulos23
Skeptic Friend
USA
446 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2008 : 15:27:35 [Permalink]
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| I don't want to think about what will happen to our economy if we can't even afford to ship in raw material we need. Sure we will have jobs back in the states, but will we have the stuff to make stuff with? |
You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting. -- Robert A. Heinlein
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 06/30/2008 : 15:33:43 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
If regular gas here hits 6, then diesel will be 8.
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Welcome to my world...
14,00SKr for a litre of unleaded translates to $8,9US
That's why I'm researching ethanol-conversions...
E85 is only $5,25US, there are savings to be made.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Anti Globalization and Pro Environment?
