Re: OT- Decks - World Economy - American way of Life - Oil Prices
- From: "Carl A." <chainfl@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:32:40 -0400
"Old Man River" <omr@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Qt6dnTBls750mp3anZ2dnUVZ_tijnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello All,
Hmmmmmmmm, where to start. Girlfriend wanted me to replace the material
on the covered deck area this year. So we went to the local lumber store
and purchased some of that fake wood stuff in boards 12' long and 6" wide.
Have to install it with screws, stainless screws. Purchased a box of them
which costs 50+ dollars. The screws are made in Japan. My "screw failure
rate" is somewhere in the 20% range. Failure rate means the screws head
strips out prior to being fully seated. The head is a Jacobson type head.
Well I figure it's one of three things. Technique, quality of the screw,
hardness of the material. I am predrilling out the Timber Treks material,
and counter sinking the head area, so I don't think it's that. I have
good screw technique, so I don't think it's that. I have changed the bit
once and will go purchase a couple more of them later today. My feeling
is it's the quality of the screws, which leads me to the main topic.
Well, it's getting harder to find a good screw, isn't it?
World Economy - this is undermining America, it's people, and our future
workforce - read - good paying jobs for your children's children, and
their kids. Business runs American, the government thinks they do, but in
reality it's business that does, and because they do, and real real greedy
people run those business, it's in their best profit margin studies to
export all the high paying jobs overseas, put peons to work making 20
cents a day, and lay off the expensive workers here. Now, yes it is
happing, and catch this, it's been happening since the late 50's, and
started slowly at first, and in the last 20 years has made large inroads
into all our way of life. A related thing is political correctness, and
the belief that your personal freedoms are greater than mine.
If business were running America, we wouldn't have the anti-business legal
environment that we do. No responsible corporate manager nowdays can
overlook threats posed by such unhelpful government agencies and mandates as
employer-paid health insurance, EPA, OSHA, etc. And don't forget the impact
of restrictions on the importation of foreign workers, i.e. traditionally
the first step for low-skilled people on the economic ladder.
Oil Prices toped 81 dollars a barrel this past week. Price of gas and
diesel fuel is going to hit 3.50 gal before the winter is over, and once
oil hits 90, over 4 dollars a gallon next year. Two reasons for this,
greed and greed. You want the price of gas/diesel to come down, stop
buying anything made in China, put their economy in the tank, so
businesses brings back those high paying jobs to America.
That's a joke indeed. Has it occurred to you that the American consumer
wouldn't be very happy if all the cheap-ass Chinese products would suddenly
be made in the good old USA and cost 50 times what they cost now? And where
would you get the labor to make them? With an unemployment rate of less
than 5% and existing US jobs going begging. . . And do you think China
would sit idly by if we boycott their products? Do you realize how quickly
we would go belly up if the Chinese were to stop buying our government
obligations -- and never mind demanding payment on the debt we already owe
them.
You want the oil price to come down, buy stock in oil companies, and demand
they keep all the refined gas/diesel/other petroleum distillates here.
Currently, all the oil companies export refined products to the United
Kingdom, because the UK does not have enough refineries, consequently,
those products do not find their way into our distribution channel, the
price goes up. Write your senator and representative to stop that
practice.
Do you really want government to take over the management of oil companies?
Remember what happened when we had price controls? Do you realize how much
people in the UK pay for a gallon of gas? And while buying stock in oil
companies at this time may be a good idea, as a stockholder wouldn't you
want management to make a profit for you? Also, keep in mind that the major
US oil companies get more than 50% of their oil and profits from outside the
USA and have well-established operations outside the country. Would you
want them to pull a Halliburton and relocate to Dubai?
We also don't have enough refineries, so the ones we do have work at above
95% utilization, when one goes down, it immediately raises the price at
the pump. Remember the Phoenix issue a few years ago, when the pipeline
broke, the price of gasoline went to 4.50 a gallon, and we paid it.
Biggest mistake we could have made as consumers, because that was a
"TEST", to see how far the price could go up and people pay it, we proved
we will pay for gas at that rate, so there is no reason for it to not make
that price, and brother it's headed there. Gas boycotts won't work, we
have to live, singling out one oil company to target also wont work,
because they don't operate in all areas we live. Clear signals sent to
the operating boards of the oil companies is the answer, first lower your
payroll by cutting the managements salary's, stop exporting refined
products overseas, keep those products here. Building up a reserve of
refined and bulk products to a six year strategic reserve will send clear
signals to the oil companies and producing nations, we are not going to
stand for it much longer.
What do you expect to happen when the environazis make it impossible to add
refining capacity? Oil is a commodity governed by the laws of supply and
demand. Only about 10% of worldwide oil production comes from private
industry, the balance is produced by government-owned oil companies. Yet
when the price of unrefined oil goes up, the investor-owned oil companies
are vilified and the smartest woman of the world is lauded for recommending
that their profits should be forcibly taken away and invested in such silly
schemes as windmills and ethanol. As long as we refuse to build nuclear
power plants and allow RVs to burn gas at the rate of 8 mpg, we aren't going
to reduce demand significantly.
High fuel prices will cripple the economy, as more of the GNP is spent on
fuel, not food, not medicine, not housing. I believe we are headed into a
serious recession period, which will significantly lead to major job
losses, and a housing downturn 50% worse than presently seen.
Elect a socialist government and people like Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Barbara
Boxer, et.al. will surely bring it about.
The world economy is a pretty complicated matter and I don't have any quick
answers to the issues you raised. But I do caution against listening to the
demagogues who think that a couple of laws will solve our problems. Indeed,
I firmly believe that anything that interferes with the fundament laws of
supply and demand will ultimately lead to the demise of free enterprise and,
therefore, the end of our way of life. It's really amusing to observe how
Europe is turning away from state-run socialistic policies while we are
becoming enamored with them.
--
Carl A. in FL
Photojournals of my travels are at
http://sky.prohosting.com/chainfl/
.
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