Re: Time to cut our dependence on and therefore our interest in the...


"Alan Lichtenstein" <arl@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DN6dnWBjbpWCgpveRVn-jw@xxxxxxxxxx
> Olly Mensch wrote:
>
>> Paul - surely you know the answer to your own question; it is not so
>> complex or new- or different. People -= all of us - some more, some
>> less - are driven by all kinds of motives to do what we do; not always
>> very sensible. But we are free to do so,and industry is free to respond
>> to our foolishness,and pesent us with what they believe we want. Or even
>> vice versa.
>> It does not take an Einstein to figure that out - or to question it,
>> even though no one forces you to like it!.
>> Olly
>
> Yes, Olly, we are all free to do what we want just so long as our pursuit
> of our freedom doesn't impinge on someone else's pursuit of their freedom.
> When we have a finite resource, such as oil, we cannot permit those who
> have money to waste the resource, because it impinges on the remainder of
> the population. Consequently, your argument fails that test, because if
> we allow people to purchase SUV's when they have no real need for the
> vehicles simply because they can, then their pursuit of freedom does
> impinge on everyone else's.
>
Nice sentiments, but just about impossible to achieve it seems to me, i.e.
pursuing our freedom which does not impinge on someone else's pursuit of
their freedom. As for who we "allow" to utilize a limited resource such as
oil, it seems to me that includes all of us who use that oil, not only those
who sell that oil. For that matter, if there were not people who are
willing to buy that oil, then there would not be people who produce and sell
the oil. As for the SUV argument, that also seems to me to apply to a whole
bunch of things we use. For example, since all of us are retired on this
newsgroup, do we all really need to have spent our earths valuable
resources, using the very computer we are now using? Think about what raw
materials that were used in the construction of this "toy"? How about the
electericity that is consumed while we are using this "toy"? And this toy
only lasts a couple of years before it is replaced, either because it does
not work well anymore, or because we want something that is a little
faster....wasting valuable resources perhaps? You should come to my house
and take a look in my garage....quite an accumulation of old computers,
displays and other computer stuff that no longer works. Do you travel? How
much "limited" resources does that require? If no one travelled for
pleasure, how much resources would we save?


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Time to cut our dependence on and therefore our interest in the...
    ... i.e. pursuing our freedom which does not impinge on someone else's pursuit of their freedom. ... They just won't be able to fill up their tank whenever they want, because the common good will have oil available for all. ... Wasting finite resources is a crime and should be treated as such. ... public transportation cannot support the lifestyle we have chosen for ourselves and is impractical to do so. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Time to cut our dependence on and therefore our interest in the...
    ... of our freedom doesn't impinge on someone else's pursuit of their freedom. ... When we have a finite resource, such as oil, we cannot permit those who have money to waste the resource, because it impinges on the remainder of the population. ... Consequently, your argument fails that test, because if we allow people to purchase SUV's when they have no real need for the vehicles simply because they can, then their pursuit of freedom does impinge on everyone else's. ... For example, since all of us are retired on this newsgroup, do we all really need to have spent our earths valuable resources, using the very computer we are now using? ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • Re: Time to cut our dependence on and therefore our interest in the...
    ... >> pursuit of their freedom. ... > Hardly, Jerry. ... > because the common good will have oil available for all. ... We waste all kinds of resources. ...
    (soc.retirement)
  • =?iso-8859-1?q?=BFIs_Chavez_ready_to_cut_off_oil_at_the_slightest_threat_to_Cuba=3F?=
    ... US PROXY MILITARY RESOURCES: Israel losing a war it launched to ... US oil supplies under severe threat due to ... government control of the economy). ... vulnerable to sharp price rises due to combined effects of US dollar ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Time to cut our dependence on and therefore our interest in the...
    ... > We waste all kinds of resources. ... > Some of them, like oil obvously have ... > inadequacies of public transportation were made clear. ... The only reason we still use cars that consume gasoline is because when we ...
    (soc.retirement)
Quantcast