[Vision2020] Banditry is Not an Option Was: Economists Predicted $90/Barrel...

[Sunil Ramalingam]

I am relieved that  your plan does not involve taking over oil rigs in other countries.  

I don't know that I want soldiers running oil rigs though.  Your plan still involves a taxpayer subsidy, since it requires government workers running these rigs, and additionally there is a 'takings' problem when we seize private property.

Sunil

Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 13:08:14 -0800
From: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Banditry is Not an Option Was: Economists Predicted $90/Barrel...
To: sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com

Sunil,     You have way too much of an overactive imagination. You are obviously unaware that many oil rigs are sitting in the ocean unmanned, and turned off so that it drives up the oil prices. We don't have to go to other nations, or take anything the government and taxpayers didn't pay for in one way or another. We don't need to kill or shoot anyone. Just take back what is US property that was abandoned.      The United States Government should produce its own oil, 30% of US supply, so it can control the market rate for oil, in much the same way we control interest rates. If the United State produced its own oil, it could sell oil at a lower rate to drive down its market price down. If it sold oil for $80 a barrel, it would drive the barrel price down. It would also eliminate our dependence on foreign nations, and our need to readily invade other nations that do produce it and won't give it to us
 at an affordable rate.      Regards,     Donovan  

Sunil Ramalingam <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:      Snide?  Snide?  I credit you with 'Swiftian' and I get 'snide?'

Donovan, it seems to me the oil rigs you think we should consider taking over are in other countries and belong to other people.  You appear to be advocating invasions of other countries to steal their property.  So we should underwrite immense war debt to subsidize fuel prices?  (I'm setting aside the moral aspects here for simplicity's sake, so we'll leave out the dead foreign people for a moment.)

Or did I miss something?  Were all the oil
 wells here in the US?

Sunil

      Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 01:13:55 -0800
From: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Banditry is Not an Option Was: Economists Predicted $90/Barrel...
To: sunilramalingam at hotmail.com
CC: vision2020 at moscow.com

  Sunil,     Thanks for the snide remarks. It certainly adds to the quality of emails here on the community Viz.         Best Regards,     Donovan

Sunil Ramalingam <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:      The President has already embarked on phase 1 of Donovan's Swiftian proposal.  It's
 called the Iraq War, and thus far it hasn't worked as planned.

Sunil

> Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2008 17:56:42 -0800
> From: chasuk at gmail.com
> To: donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Banditry is Not an Option Was: Economists Predicted $90/Barrel...
> 
> On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 2:40 PM, Donovan Arnold
> <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > What if the next president did the same thing with oil? What if the military
> > forced itself onto oil rigs and started pumping more oil, and build and
> > opened more oil refiners to make sure we had affordable energy in the
> > country? What would be the consequences of that action?
> > If the president forced the private energy market to charge reasonable
> > prices by releasing its own oil production efforts and releasing oil from
> > its reserve?
>
 
> I would be uncomfortable with our military acting as bandits so that
> our obese pampered citizenry could continue to make midnight runs to
> WinCo for Twinkies and Mountain Dew. I know, I'm simplifying, but not
> by much. Sometimes, these midnight runs include Twinkies, Mountain
> Dew, and Doritos.
> 
> Now, being really, sincerely serious, I would never, ever condone
> using our miltary as bandits, for whatever reason. Of course, this
> "never, ever" has three exceptions, but I'm fairly confident that
> these three exceptions are far removed from reality.
> 
> 1. I'm starving to death. My three bowls of rice and beans have
> diminished to a single bowl of rice and beans, and then to a bowl of
> rice without beans. The menu might vary, but my bare nutritional
> needs are not being met. Banditry is okay by me when it is necessary
> to guarantee my literal survival, no other
 proviso required.
> 
> 2. The government spends at least $1 trillion on developing
> alternative energy sources. If we can spend that much money killing
> people, we can spend that much money developing ways to unyoke the
> world from the petroleum beast. If our scientists are given that much
> money to spend -- with oil companies, oil company lobbyists and oily
> politicians put on firm leashes -- thn we would find an oilless
> solution.
> 
> 3. Walk. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 26 years old.
> It expired when I turned 30, which I didn't renew for the next twelve
> years. Somehow, I managed. Generally, i walked everywhere. This
> obviously isn't viable for everyone, but it is viable for millions of
> USians who live two minutes from the supermarket and yet still drive
> to the store to pick up that loaf of bread, or that all-important
> Snickers. In other
 words, for my able-bodied peers who complain about
> the price of gas and yet still walk only when their car is in the
> shop, I whip out my smallest violin while simultaneously singing "boo
> hoo hoo."
> 
> Chas
> 
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