Well youth is for throwing away. It almost does not matter how you do it. I got myself thrown out of the Seattle public school system, ran away from home and spent the few years playing music and taking drugs. Just when I was getting undeniably good, I injured my hand and could no longer play that well. Wasted time? Maybe. Hey I forgot to mention in the fifth grade there was mention of sending me to college, then. Maybe I should also mention that most things are still transparent to me. I have found that being smart causes resentment in most of the population.
So somebody looked at the tools available to them and came up with a solution to a problem they were facing. Maybe I am just naive or just used to my own world but these sort of solutions seem normal to me. Certainly the aims of these fixes are loftier than most of the issues I face. It still just seems a normal reaction to me to look at a problem and come up with a solution that fits the tools, materials and budget at hand. Of course I did not get the fascination with MacGyver either.
Let me say that first I am not convinced ethanol is the answer but the subsidy issue is not the reason. Check this one out. http://pangea.stanford.edu/ESYS/Energy%20seminars/ patzek_ethanol.pdf Subsidies are a whole different animal. First we pay at the pump less than half of the cost of a gallon of gas. Our tax dollars pay the rest. Second we pay in many other ways like: subsidies for exploration, subsidies for new fuel mixes, studies on future supply, tax breaks, etc.. Agribusiness is not the only pig at the trough. From a quick look it seems agribiz is sucking about 19 billion a year out of us and oil totals are a little more elusive but look to be a close contender. The links I provided were found with a quick google on subsidies for the industries in question.
A report developed by Greenpeace. The Executive Summary of the report "Fueling Global Warming: Federal Subsidies to Oil in the United States" is available at the address: http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/oil/fdsub.html
Now I haven't looked closely at this situation in 15 years or so but it seems the arguement hasn't changed much. Subsidies are a bad idea and so is nitrate fertilizer.
I would like to see a comparison between "dino-fuel" subsidies and corn. One could also argue that at least the dollars spent on corn subsidies stay in country. Has everyone overlooked the "cheap" price we pay at the pump is synthetic? If we were paying "market" prices at the pump I'd wager this converstation would have a totally different tone.
I can't believe what I am hearing. How can we all blame anyone other than ourselves for this. We could stop all this tomorrow. Of course it has to do with greed. Only the greed starts with the guy who wishes to drive to work or use a computer or watch TV. If we were all to throw our car keys in the drawer and make it known no more money would be spent until problem resolved it would be resolved imediatley. This problem and all others like it starts and ends with the consumer. Not the provider of the service or product. After all one of the first things we learn in economics is that dollars are votes. Everytime we spend on something we tell the provider of it we are satisfied. The purchase price is the proof. It is our fault that we are getting what we ask for.
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Well youth is for throwing away. It almost does not matter how you do it. I got myself thrown out of the Seattle public school system, ran away from home and spent the few years playing music and taking drugs. Just when I was getting undeniably good, I injured my hand and could no longer play that well.
Wasted time? Maybe. Hey I forgot to mention in the fifth grade there was mention of sending me to college, then. Maybe I should also mention that most things are still transparent to me. I have found that being smart causes resentment in most of the population.
So somebody looked at the tools available to them and came up with a solution to a problem they were facing. Maybe I am just naive or just used to my own world but these sort of solutions seem normal to me. Certainly the aims of these fixes are loftier than most of the issues I face. It still just seems a normal reaction to me to look at a problem and come up with a solution that fits the tools, materials and budget at hand. Of course I did not get the fascination with MacGyver either.
Let me say that first I am not convinced ethanol is the answer but the subsidy issue is not the reason./ patzek_ethanol.pdf
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Check this one out. http://pangea.stanford.edu/ESYS/Energy%20seminars
Subsidies are a whole different animal.
First we pay at the pump less than half of the cost of a gallon of gas. Our tax dollars pay the rest. Second we pay in many other ways like: subsidies for exploration, subsidies for new fuel mixes, studies on future supply, tax breaks, etc..
Agribusiness is not the only pig at the trough. From a quick look it seems agribiz is sucking about 19 billion a year out of us and oil totals are a little more elusive but look to be a close contender. The links I provided were found with a quick google on subsidies for the industries in question.
This one is pretty informative.
http://www.monitor.net/monitor/10-9-95/oilsubsidy
A report developed by Greenpeace.
The Executive Summary of the report "Fueling Global Warming:
Federal Subsidies to Oil in the United States" is available at
the address: http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/oil/fdsub.html
The full report is available in Adobe Acrobat format at the
address: http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/oil/fdsuboil.p
(appendixes available in Adobe Acrobat format at the address:
http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/oil/fdsubapp.p
Note--the full report plus appendixes is appox 180 pages.
This one states (fairly closely) the real cost of a gallon of gas.
http://www.distributiondrive.com/Article4.html
Now I haven't looked closely at this situation in 15 years or so but it seems the arguement hasn't changed much. Subsidies are a bad idea and so is nitrate fertilizer.
I would like to see a comparison between "dino-fuel" subsidies and corn. One could also argue that at least the dollars spent on corn subsidies stay in country. Has everyone overlooked the "cheap" price we pay at the pump is synthetic? If we were paying "market" prices at the pump I'd wager this converstation would have a totally different tone.
I can't believe what I am hearing. How can we all blame anyone other than ourselves for this. We could stop all this tomorrow. Of course it has to do with greed. Only the greed starts with the guy who wishes to drive to work or use a computer or watch TV. If we were all to throw our car keys in the drawer and make it known no more money would be spent until problem resolved it would be resolved imediatley.
This problem and all others like it starts and ends with the consumer. Not the provider of the service or product. After all one of the first things we learn in economics is that dollars are votes. Everytime we spend on something we tell the provider of it we are satisfied. The purchase price is the proof.
It is our fault that we are getting what we ask for.
Which just goes to show that common and sense are two words that do not go together. I think this is just more proof that sense is not common at all.