[lit-ideas] Re: Niall Ferguson on high oil prices

  • From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 09:39:25 +0900

On 4/30/06, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:




http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/30/do3003.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_30042006




There is much good sense in what Niall Ferguson has to say,  from an
economics textbook point of view. It would be nice, though, if he even
began to acknowledge the truth in G.W.Bush's remark that Americans are
addicted to oil. An addiction is not, from the addict's perspective, a
free choice. It is something he or she has to have or suffer horrible
pain.

Ruth and I were reminded of this during our last trip to the States,
when we drove through South Texas from Corpus Christi to San Antonio,
a roughly three-hour drive, to visit the nearest Babys 'R Us (we will
soon be grandparents). The gasoline-powered automobile isn't an option
for people who live in the U.S.A.'s sprawling suburbs and shop at its
Walmarts and other shopping centers. It has, given the way they live,
become a neccessity. Especially for those living near or below the
median income, which has been falling for several years running now, a
sharp rise in gas prices isn't the economist's signal to reduce
demand. It is perilously close to a tipping point into serious
difficulty, where paying for gas may have to take priority over home
repairs, medical insurance and other household budget items. For
middle-class folks, much of whose household equity is tied up in in
suburban homes, the very real possibility that if car operation
becomes more expensive the value of those homes will collapse if
travel to and from them becomes more expensive is terrifying.

That may be why we are now seeing members of the President's own party
speaking as follows (courtesy of Truthout.com):

===================================

Editor's Note: This perspective comes from an Ohio Republican. Michael
A. Fox served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives for 23
years and is currently a County Commissioner in Butler County, Ohio.
Conservative on most issues, Fox has come to realize that the war in
Iraq is about feeding our oil addiction and it doesn't sit well with
him. He raises his voice eloquently against "trading the bodies of our
young people for barrels of oil." As more and more Americans from both
the right and the left discover that the current energy crisis is not
temporary but permanent, the political ground underneath many
different issues, from the environment to foreign policy, will shift.
--kw/TO
   Bodies for Barrels: Betrayal and Energy Dependence
   By Michael A. Fox
   t r u t h o u t | Perspective

   America's energy problems are not, as President Bush recently
declared, because Americans have an "addiction to oil." Our energy
problems stem from the failed leadership of two political parties -
Democrats and Republicans.

   For over thirty years presidents and congresses from both parties
have had an addiction to playing politics and courting the special
interests who fund their next election cycle - all at the expense of
our national security.

   They have betrayed us. America felt the first shock wave of energy
dependence with the oil embargo of 1973. The lessons from that
experience were clear - our nation and our economy could be brought to
its knees by a handful of hate-filled lunatics in the Middle East; a
lesson ignored by both parties. Since then, leaders from each party
periodically paid lip service to energy independence, making symbolic
moves designed to reassure the public that making America energy
independent was important. But neither party ever made it a priority.
Neither party has provided continuous and determined leadership to
secure our national security by securing our energy independence.

   The result? Never in our history has our country been more
vulnerable to foreign influence and economic attack from our enemies.
The neglect and betrayal by both parties has led us to an unspoken yet
horrifically real and hollow energy and foreign policy that reduces us
to trading the bodies of our young people for barrels of oil.

   Like many Americans I trusted the President. I believe that he is
a good and decent man. But like presidents before him, he cannot even
seem to envision a policy that leads to energy independence. When he
delivered his State of the Union Address a few weeks ago, I cringed
when I heard him brag that "Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10
billion to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative
energy sources - and we are on the threshold of incredible advances."
He announced the creation of an "Advanced Energy Initiative - a 22
percent increase in clean energy research." Big deal, like going to a
gun fight with a toy knife.

   Suggesting that we can somehow do anything meaningful to achieve
energy independence by increasing our five year investment in research
by roughly $200 million per year is laughable. To put this investment
in energy independence in perspective, consider that since 2001
Americans have spent $200 billion dollars on pet food - 20 times more
on buying pet food than the federal government spends on energy
research.

   Here's the essence of our energy policy. Imagine this: you pull
into a gas station and tell the attendant to fill up the gas tank. It
comes time to pay and the attendant asks "Which of your children do
you want to sacrifice in payment." Which child must die? Ridiculous?
How is that different than what we are doing in the Middle East?

   The invasion of Iraq, the stationing of our 6th Fleet in the
Mediterranean, the posting of our troops at a cost of hundreds of
billions of dollars annually throughout the Middle East is about
protecting the oil fields of Saudi Arabia - our so-called ally who has
provided funding for most of the terrorist groups that stir
anti-American hatred throughout the world.

   America invests hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of
young people's lives and mangled bodies each year to make sure each of
us can fill up our tank when we need it - bodies for barrels. But what
if we had to trade our child (as so many have been called to do) for a
full tank of gas?

   Wouldn't we demand an alternative solution like a responsible
energy policy that is as important to us as the Manhattan Project was
during World War II or putting a man on the moon was in the 60s? I
believe we would - and we should.

   If it is financially sustainable for our nation to spend what some
estimate will be a trillion dollars in the Iraqi War before we're
finished, then why is it so outlandish to expect that we make an equal
investment of national and financial resources to energy independence?
If we are willing to ask our young people to sacrifice and die or get
maimed so we can top off our tanks, then why are we not equally
willing to commit our nation to energy independence?

   Our nation's energy vulnerability is an outrageous betrayal by
both parties - Democrats and Republicans. In the coming days you will
see a frenzy of proposals coming from both Democrats and Republicans
in the Congress. These proposals will continue to cascade until the
November election and then we'll go back to business as usual.

   These gestures are nothing more than symbolic gestures. The public
needs more than symbols from our leaders; we deserve solutions.
America has the ingenuity, intellectual infrastructure, spirit and
knowledge to come through this crisis as we have others in our
history.

   Across America there are young minds teeming with ideas that
deserve research funding so they can help us end our reliance on
foreign energy. There are ideas that will enable us to conserve more
energy, get more efficiency out of our engines and industrial
enterprises and lead to alternative sources heretofore not even
considered.

   The missing ingredients are and always have been, leadership,
vision, and will. Money follows vision. Our political leaders need to
articulate a simple vision and actually mean it - energy independence.

   Here's a start. As Congress currently debates a measure that will
provide increased funding for the Iraq War why not adopt a policy that
says: "Not one more dollar should be spent on the Iraq War or securing
the oil fields and shipping lanes of the world unless an equal dollar
is spent on research to secure our energy independence?" If it is
important enough to spend a dollar sending a young man or woman to war
then it is important enough as a nation to spend an equal dollar
eliminating the threat that causes them to lay down their life.

   America needs political leadership that looks beyond the next
election and beyond the favor of oil and multinational corporate
interests. There is nothing that America cannot achieve if we commit
ourselves to a vision and support it with the full will and might of
our nation. What happened to the days when our political leaders had
the courage to do what is right and had the will to set politics aside
to protect our national security?

   There is nothing more important to America's future than securing
energy independence. Without it, our children and grandchildren are
likely to see wars of incomprehensible destruction. President
Eisenhower once said that "the only way to win World War III was to
prevent it."

   We are at the threshold or Armageddon and the fuse that is likely
to set it off is energy dependency, nations warring to secure scarce
resources. Our ability to avoid the incomprehensible horror of World
War III depends on our energy independence. Continued energy
dependence will mean continued war. America can do better than an
energy policy that trades the bodies of our young people for barrels
of oil. In order to do this, each American has to stand ready to make
whatever sacrifice is required to become energy independent.

   Why not give research a chance? Why not give America's brilliance
and innovative spirit a chance? Why not enlist the creativity and
intellectual fire-power of our young people's minds and back it with
the full might of our nation's wealth?

   If we must, in the short run, spend billions of dollars to send
our young people into battle to secure the oil our economy needs then
let's match those expenditures with equal amounts going into
laboratories and university research centers to find the solutions to
our energy dependence.

   How can our leaders send someone's child to battle knowing that
the circumstances that make their sacrifice necessary are driven by
the unwillingness of our nation to make the sacrifices that must be
made to avoid the war we send them to fight? How can any congressman,
senator, or president send someone's child to battle without being
able to look them in the eye and tell them with conviction and truth
that we will match their sacrifice with the courage, force of will,
and resources to become energy independent?

   Our leaders are the stewards of freedom and thus far they have
betrayed the trust of the American people. On the day President John
F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, the speech he was to have delivered
contained these words: "We in this country - are - by destiny rather
than by choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom." His
words ring true today, and unless our national leaders break the bonds
of energy dependence, the walls of freedom will come tumbling down.

   Our leaders have been asleep at their posts. It's time that they
wake up and rise to the challenge of our time. It's time for them to
make some tough choices and break our chain of dependence. It is time
for them to muster the courage to do whatever is necessary to make
sure that not one American son our daughter is sent to battle to fight
for a barrel of oil.

   For me the choice is easy. What I don't understand is why our
national leaders cannot see it. For the sake of our children, our
future, and the security of America, it's time we force them to see
the challenge and act.

=============================


-- John McCreery The Word Works, Ltd. 55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku Yokohama 220-0006, JAPAN ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

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