Craig Haynie wrote:
> price falls to $2.50. I wish the leaders would tell the
> citizens that oil
> is running out, and it is time to make sacrifices and make
> changes. [...]
I am curious why you want to do this. The market will do this naturally as
the supply of oil begins to fail to keep pace with demand. Why rush the
inevitable?
Well, I want to impose the tax to pay for the war and the hurricanes
without bankrupting our grandchildren or inflating the money.
But sure, the market will take care of things. I am a big fan of
capitalism. I am confident that corporations will take risks and make
profits, and this will solve the energy crisis. However, in the U.S. we
have always had state capitalism. The government has taken an active role,
collaborating with industry and investing directly to implement every
large-scale, national scale technology, from canals to railroads,
telecommunications, automobiles, computers, highways and the Internet. I
doubt you can come up with a single example of a major technology that does
not have Uncle Sam's fingerprints on it. The U.S. and British governments
have always done a superb job at this, and it has resulted in the most
successful economies on earth, so I see no reason to change the rules now
after 300 years. I am a conservative in that respect.
And just because the free market will take care of things, that does not
mean we do not have to plan ahead and make sacrifices. The market took care
of the Y2K bug, but it cost everyone lots of money and sacrifice.
- Jed
