Economic Meltdown (seconda parte)

[kandrathe]

I don't agree on government subsidy as the best method of instigating change.

Well maybe it will work if they stop indirectly subsidizing oil. The tremendous costs the west and especially the US has (but also china and russia) in handling one conflict after another in the middle east is nothing else then subsidizing weapons industry and oil. Without the gulf wars maybe the west already had a 30 % higher share of alternative energy.

Isn't it a two edged sword?

On the one hand, you have a population that has been habituated to the internal combustion engine in a 3600 lb vehicle that can accelerate to 60 mph in less than 8 seconds, and achieve a top speed of 150 mph. Their lives and livelihoods are directly influenced by the range and speed of this vehicle. Were you to turn people out of their jobs, or cause prices to skyrocket, it would create domestic unrest and riots.

Or, you can take your technologically advanced military hardware, and a small army and dominate the middle east to control the supply and therefore price of oil.

The ugly truth that we are unwilling to adequately address is that our energy consumption is unsustainably high. Many people in the world are habituated to the comforts afforded by fossil fuels, such as heat, and mobility. Who wants to oversee the move towards deprivation? Who gets to eat the reduced food supply, and who freezes in the winter? Then there would be the business and economic impact, causing a generation of disruption and displacement.

But, our goals are the same. I would like to see more implementations of alternative energy, where they make economic sense. What doesn't work is when the government gives a few billion dollars to GE to make wind turbines and they end up installed everywhere, including many places without wind. Or, when government decides to subsidize ethanol, and require it's use to create an artificial demand.

I'm against the blood sucking companies who derive their profits through subsidy, regulation, and bailouts rather than through wealth creating competition and innovation.