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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] FYI All You Bloggers
  • Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 10:00:08 EST




> I'm expecting living standards to go all to hell as the price of oil goes up
> and the known supply goes down. Today, an estimate of $104/barrel oil prices
> came out. Even if there is enough gas, oil, NG, etc., if the price suddenly
> goes ballistic, life as we know it is going to be not pretty.

And the effects of it just keep going. To tie this into another topic
thoroughly hashed here on this list, millions of people in this country are
depending on SS, pensions, and profits from stock investments to provide all
their
needs for large chunk of their lives. In energy prices go ballistic, and
that
is more likely than not, the profits that were going to keep stock prices
afloat and pay pensions would be greatly, greatly reduced. And when incomes
take a
disasterous dive, the taxes on those incomes that were relied upon for SS
will not be there. Remember (ad nauseum, but is seems necessary to keep
repeating it) there IS no acutal money in the SS surplus, it depends on
taxing people
(or borrowing money which has to be paid back by taxing the people) during
the year that the funds are needed. No incomes, no taxes, no SS.


>
> I'm not so much worried about government power, but about government's
> inability to foresee and exert any control at all upon the basic necessities
> that keep our civilization functioning.
>
>

The government can't exert much control on the price and availability of
energy, especially oil, neither by interfering with the affairs of its people
nor
refraining from doing so. This is because our oil-based culture is up
against
a stark physical reality, there's not enough oil in existence to maintain
our standard of living for all that much longer. Governments can't
legislate
physical reality. For example, no matter how politically compelling SS is,
the
government cannot force food and housing and energy into existence. When too
many people are competing for those resources, it doesn't matter what your SS
check is, you still won't be able to buy them. Like that when China (which
has 20 million motor vehicles) wants to just move toward the mobility that US
enjoys (with 230 million motor vehicles), they have the ability to bid the
price of energy out of our reach.

Most people (who actively post) on this list are old enough to recall what I
am saying here: Going through various parts of the urban areas here abouts
one sees a stark difference between the housing that was built up the 60's
and
the housing being built now of days. Houses were small back then. We passed
through the neighborhood where I grew up and I pointed out a house that
seemed
occupied now although it had been empty for two decades. It was considered
the "rich" house in my neighborhood. It was maybe 1500 sq ft and quite
modest
by todays standards. Back then forced air heating was very rare, most people
lived in houses well under 1000 sq ft and five or six or more people lived in
each house. Families had one vehicle, if that, one television, if that, and
air conditioning was unheard of. There was no frozen food in the grocery
stores
and any type of convenience food was rare.

Every house being built here now ranges from what was considered in the 50's
to be a huge house to houses four to five times that size. They are all
centrally forced air heated and cooled and they have two or three car garages
...
garages which are seldom occupied since the multiple vehicles per family are
almost always on the road.

We've been buring the energy candle at both ends and the middle for a while
now. Yet we have become so used it that I think a lot of people would rather
kill themselves than live as many of us grew up.

James




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