Re: Cheap Gas=Unnatural Capitalism - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

07-23-2003, 04:40 PM

Don Quijote wrote:
> "Bald Headed John Kane" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
> news:<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>. ..
> > On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 12:25:38 -0700, Don Quijote wrote:
> >
> " -M.L. King
> > What people don't realize is our military (US) costs are huge to
> > ensure cheap oil, they only look at the pump price and bitch
> > about taxes.
> That's right, you pay a price, one way or another...
> Honest Accounting -- The Real Cost of Going to War With Iraq Colonel
> Daniel Smith, USA (Ret.)
> October 31, 2002
> (snip)
> One question that is almost never asked is how much does "cheap oil"
> really cost U.S.
> <snip>
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
> donquijote

It's refreshing to have the argument quantified. These costs could be
considered as subsidies to the oil corporations. Now we see in concrete
terms how corporations could not function without the nanny state and
the tribute it extracts from us. Then to add insult to injury we have an
administration that was not elected bent on setting up a police state to
make sure the game stays the same. If anyone wonders what fascism looks
like in America, look around you.

--
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07-24-2003, 08:38 AM

"DurangoKid" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:3f1f2189$[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].au...
> Don Quijote wrote:
> > "Bald Headed John Kane" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
> > news:<[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]>. ..
> > > On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 12:25:38 -0700, Don Quijote wrote:
> > >
> > " -M.L. King
> > > What people don't realize is our military (US) costs are huge to
> > > ensure cheap oil, they only look at the pump price and bitch
> > > about taxes.

But it's quite silly. OPEC doesn't keep oil cheap because of US miliary
might, they keep it cheap because it is in THEIR interest. Why?!? Because
they are afraid that high oil prices will lead to conservation, to greater
investment in energy efficiency, to the development of alternate sources of
energy, etc. Which, of course, is exactly what high oil prices would do.

The war in Iraq isn't going to make Iraqi oil cheaper -- the US (and
everybody else) are *still* going to have to buy it at market rates. And in
the short term, of course, the war has reduced the flow of oil from Iraq to
a trickle which, of course, does not tend to lower prices.

To the extent that the war was about oil, it was about it in the sense that
it is dangerous to let a brutal nut case like Saddam Hussein have access to
a huge stream of oil money. We (and/or Europe and/or Japan) are going to be
paying that money to Iraq regardless of the outcome of the war, but now it
won't be going to Saddam (and definitely not to Uday and Qusay) to support
their police state, torture and execute their citizenry and acquire weaponry
to threaten the Middle East.

Mark