OT: Business As Usual? Scary....

AIG...I guess its conceivable that the insurance group is just too big
to fail...that its failure might cause too much disruption to global
markets, so it might actually be a Good Thing for the Fed to bail it
out. I don't know, but I would hope at least that such a bailout
includes some wrist-slapping and conditions that 'business as usual'
strategies are forced to change. At least, I hope to hell that we can
afford it.

But as for lifting the offshore drilling ban....I don't like that one
bit. Just because public opinion wants cheaper gas and is in favor of
lifting the ban (who gets to determine exactly what 'public opinion'
is anyway? I'm part of the public, and that certainly isn't MY
opinion), it doesn't mean we should do it. Instead of caving in to
short-term pressures to continue using oil wastefully, we should use
this pressure to find ways to maximize our energy efficiency. Oil is
such a highly concentrated energy form that just burning through it
with low-efficiency, single-occupant vehicles, lack of mass transport,
wasteful home heating and cooling systems, etc, makes little sense. We
might as well throw bundles of cash into a woodstove; paper is also a
highly efficient energy source.

What would happen if later, we develop some incredibly efficient
source of energy that requires petrochemical assistance (like
petrochemicals to manufacture components of solar cells or wind
generators) but we have wasted our oil resources? A 100mpg vehicle is
a joke if there is no gas available, or if gas is selling for $100 a
gallon.

I know these might be elementary concerns, and that global problems
are more complex than this, but I feel pretty insecure about the
future with this tremendous lack of wisdom these days. Merely
believing that such a giant as the United States could not fail is
foolish: the Soviet Union was a peer, and it has gone by the way. One
of the big reasons for its collapse was overspending and economic
irresponsibility. Another was selfish and short-sighted leadership. A
third was blind nationalism that refused to believe that collapse
could happen. The creativity of its people (and the Russian were very
creative) and its extensive national resources were not enough to save
it; in fact they led to fractionalism and in-fighting once the going
got tough.

Many of the same conditions the existed pre-collapse exist in the US
today: financial overspending, selfish and short-sighted leadership, a
rich overclass who are operating beyond the law or public good, and a
blind hope that the creativity and human resources of the US are
enough to keep it all together.

We need to be much more careful about the future, and the days of 'I
want it all and I want it now' are over. Opening up offshore drilling,
and bailing out FNMA, FHLMC, AIG and whoever else without any changes
in Business As Usual only dooms us to failure at a more severe level,
with fewer resources to save us next time.

Funny how the word 'reform' seems to be used considerably less these
days than it was over the past 7 years.

--riverman
.

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