And that sums up why, whether we like it or not, we need government to intervene in our lives occasionally. The population (myself included), is often to dumb or too stubborn to do what is best for us.
unfortunately you have been brainwashed by your love of farmers into believing that farm subsidies are good (when in fact they are beyond terrible and are holding us back from being an incredibly more healthy economy), and that has extended into your misunderstanding this issue as well. regulation only makes problems. it isnt the government's job to promote the creation of alternative fuels! you thinking like this is the whole problem. the more you regulate oil, the less incentive there is for new energy sources. the more you try and protect us from high priced oil, the more you dissuade people from investing in something new. the more you consider preventing energy companies from profiting as much as they please, the less likely anyone is to enter the energy market, knowing the government might not let them profit like they want. one more time i ask those who favor regulation: what do you think is an acceptable profit margin? at what profit point should the government stop companies from letting us voluntarily buy products from them? is it 15%? should oil be illegal to sell at a 15% profit? is it 20%?
exactly. and there really is no problem at all, we still buy oil like crazy and cruise around in hummers. but everyone wants there to be a problem, something for the government to solve, something to worry about. another chance to "protect" people from buying things. all based on a poor understanding of economics and a misguided tendency to protect people from evil corporations.
so lets cater to the lowest common denominator? you think you need protection from scary oil prices (but you really do not). i know i do not. so you ruin things for me as well. and you really really ruin the people who are developing oil alternatives. forcibly keep the price of oil low, and nobody invests in anything new. everyone who is working on alternative fuels is screwed badly when the government intervenes. and at the same time you are sayin the government dropped the ball on developing new energy sources!
But, we the people are in fact the government, at least we are supposed to be. I could say I refuse to buy gas, so by doing so I'll force the creation alternative fuels. Problem with that is, I can't stop buying fuel and electricity and natural gas. I depend on it for my survival. however, the government has the ability to take steps to promote the creation of alternative fuel. If I buy 100 gallons of gas each month at $1.00./gallon and the price goes to $5.00/gallon and I only buy 20 gallons per month, big deal. The oil company makes more money by providing less product. They don't have to produce as much, they can lay off employees they don't need. They'll love it. I wouldn't produce an alternative fuel, I'd sit back and get richer and richer if I were them. Sometimes you have to force an industry's hand to spark improvements. Your textbook ideas are good in many instances, but sometimes the real world just doesn't work like that. If we were talking about shortages, then the oil companies would have motivation to find alternatives. As long as the supply is there and they can sustain their profits, they have no motivation.
you could surely reduce your use of oil. but you dont really need to, you can probably easily afford the oil you need. plus maybe your electricity is from a nuclear source and has nothing to do with it. and they could tr4y and take those steps, thereby slowing the whole process down by competing with actual free market companies, and also taking the entire economy down a notch by taxing us for these programs. right, but if you were paying 5 dollars a gallon, alternatives would be popping up everywhere and oil companies would quickly lose energy market share. they dont want to price you into a hybrid car. if they raise prices enough, pretty soon the demand for oil will be much less, because we will be heating our homes with biodiesel, and driving hybrids and developing all manner of new things.
Wait ,wait,wait. And the government knows what's best for us? The SUV or the big trucks we drive has nothing to do with the price of a gallon of gas. And how long we run our AC has nothing to do with it either IMO. As long as we refuse to build new refineries, refuse to allow drilling for oil and have to import 60% of our main energy source the problem of higher gas prices will persist. The very same people complaining about the high price of gas, are the ones keeping us from drilling for more oil and build new refineries. California had brown-outs a few years ago in LA and other cities. That's because they made a decision about 20 years ago to stop building power plants because of the environmental hazards they pose and to buy "cheap" energy from Arizona and Colorado. But when the price of oil and natural gas went sky high, they were left holding the $600 electric bill. Coloradians weren't. Neither were Arizonians. Because they built new power plants. If we refuse to drill for our own oil and build new refineries we will be at the mercy of world oil production.
Check, Martin gets it. When the price is too high for the market to bear, innovation or competition happens. Gordon Gecko:"Greed is good. Greed built America." Greed breeds innovation and competition is it's father.
