Only A Nincompoop Would Believe High Gas Prices Are Good

[rubato]

But back to the more general point (and an audience smarter than warm dirt). Having anything be too much or too cheap is often harmful in the end. The Obesity epidemic starting in the US and now the rest of the g-20 is due to the fact that we are wired by a half-million years of evolution to seek high-calorie foods and then to consume them to excess in the (historically rare but now common) instances when they are available.

Biology adapted us to survive conditions of want and hardship it gave us no skills to be able to deal with too much, all the time.

Gas was too cheap in the 1960s so we were vulnerable to the oil shocks of the 1970s. Agricultural water was too cheap in California which led to the environmental problems of Kesterson reservoir and to our vulnerability to the drought of 1976-77. A continual housing oversupply led to the ongoing economic and political collapse of Detroit. Too-cheap electricity has led to the horrific environmental problems of China and (probably permanent) loss of agricultural water in India.

Energy is further complicated by all of the externalized costs of energy production. Mountaintop removal coal mining, air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, oil spills like the deepwater horizon catastrophe. All of those represent costs which are often not included in the price the user pays for energy and thus are borne by society as a whole in degraded wetlands, lost industries, shortened lives.

It is a vital function of government to ensure that collective costs and risks are included in the price of commodities so that we will minimize costs appropriately.


yrs,
rubato

[Crackpot]

1963 =/= 1950

That was 1967.

[Econoline]

Here is the elephant in the room:

[Joe Guy]

Not really.

Here's the elephant in the room...

[dales]

Now, now, now, wait just a goshdarn minute!



White people aren't buying gasoline but blacks still are and how do second generation and foregin born figger into this? Do they buy gass or do they walk?

I's so cornfused!

[Econoline]

That was regarding the population of Detroit, not the price of gas. I also posted it in that other thread about Detroit (along with Joe's wonderfully appropriate image) where it was actually on-topic.

[rubato]

Cheap energy, Beijing style:



The Pollution in china due to cheap energy is so bad that US companies can't find people to staff their offices in Shanghai and Beijing.

yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

1963 =/= 1950

That was 1967.

By 1960 the population of Detroit had already fallen by nearly 200,000 people. An almost 10% drop. Catastrophe.


http://www.somacon.com/p469.php

[Crackpot]

That was because of the construction of the interstates fucking moron how many times dose it have to get spelled out for you?

[rubato]

That was because of the construction of the interstates fucking moron how many times dose it have to get spelled out for you?

The population collapse started before the construction of the interstates and has continued for decades.


An effect which the construction of interstates didn't have anywhere else.


How fucking stupid are you? Dumbboy?

yrs,
rubato

[Crackpot]

Construction for the interstates started in the fifties asshole (actually land acquisition for what became I-94 started in 45 but that met delays that pushed it into the 50s) the riots happened in 67 try doing some research (or at least reading what I've already said) you fucking moron!

again since yo missed it the first time.

interstates destroyed homes through the 50's the land for these projects was acquisitioned largely from "colored" neighborhoods "Coloreds" were not allowed to move or expand into "white" neighborhoods creating a (local) housing shortage this and other racist policies eventually sparked the race riots in 67 that caused the vacant housing problem.

[Lord Jim]

How fucking stupid are YOU? Dumbboy?

yrs,
rubato

ETA:

Here's the reason I have not bothered to respond to these idiotic Rubatonomic posts:

It's because a guy who says things like:

" Having anything be too much or too cheap is often harmful in the end."

Evinces such a simplistic and primitive lack of understanding of the basic concepts of cost and value, that it would be impossible to even attempt to have a useful conversation with him...

(Well, that and the fact that he's obviously lit...)

[dales]

Hence: My use of the word "Nincompoop" in the tread tiltle.

I so enjoy the rube on these languid summer afternoons.