Zell, Chris wrote:
Brazil dropped their subsidies, some day we can too.
Sure, and we can have ethanol too, if we want to live like
third-world peasants. We are headed in that direction.
" horrendous and totally uncontrolled pollution caused by ethanol
production"
Silly and reaching. "Totally uncontrolled"? absurd
Yeah, it is absurd, isn't it? Why do you think they build the
factories smack in the middle of nowhere in Iowa. They produce 160
gallons of waste water for every gallon of ethanol. If they were to
treat the stuff it would add another $0.36 per gallon to the cost,
but they just let it run down rivers instead. This is also why
agribusiness builds giant hog farms that dump raw sewage into rivers
and the land in these places. The local governments have essentially
no environmental control laws so industry gets away with murder. (Literally.)
If you are so anxious to promote this industry, I suggest to learn
one or two things about it. What I have described is common
knowledge. Even the industry flacks do not deny that it produces
tremendous amounts of waste. They say the pollution does not matter.
You are not even aware it exists.
Paying billions to farmers and the owners of obsolete factories
today contributes nothing to progress.
Jobs in rural areas that also reduce oil dependence are important
If your purpose is to steal money from taxpayers and give it to
unemployed rural people, why not be honest and simply put them on
welfare? They will do far less damage to the land and the economy if
we simply pay them off, rather than paying them off to waste a few
hundred million barrels of oil.
Giving people real work does give them dignity and purpose in life,
but I do not think it helps to give people pretend make-work in a
government boondoggle like ethanol. In any case, they might as well
admit that all they are doing is stealing from the rest of us.
Frankly, those people should be ashamed to accept the money. They
should be forced to jump through rings and surrender their assets and
self-respect, the way urban welfare cases are.
- Jed
