OT: Re: katrina ...

[Michael Hipp]

Alan Jackson wrote:
> Let me share some hard facts.
> 
> The world is running out of oil. Exploration discovery rates peaked back 
> in the 1960's and have fallen ever since.
> 
> Production is estimated to peak sometime between now and 2010.

Can this truly be established as fact?

I keep reading such, but most of those saying it are writing opinion pieces 
and likely have a barely-hidden agenda to go with it.

Not particularly disagreeing with you, just wondering how/whom/where this has 
become an established fact. If this is indeed a fact we are all looking at 
some serious lifestyle changes. (So be it, but I'd like to get an early start.)

> Currently most exploration of significance is in deepwater Gulf of Mexico,
> West Africa, and Borneo.

But isn't most of this (as regards the developed nations, anyway) more due to 
stifling environmental regs and an unfriendly political environment rather 
than there just being nowhere to find oil?

> There are basically two ways to distibute goods to people. Either you have
> a free market, and he who is willing and able to pay the most gets some
> of whatever it is, or you have the government take control and ration 
> whatever it may be. I'm no huge fan of laissez-faire economics. I think
> that the market can be stupid and cruel, and needs regulating. On the 
> other hand, it is terribly efficient at matching supply and demand, much
> more so than any government could be.

All true, but you fail to note that government is also stupid and cruel and 
needs regulating. So here's how it stacks up:

Free market: Efficient at resource allocation, but stupid and cruel.
Government: Inefficient at resource allocation, while being stupid and cruel.

> I have advocated a carbon tax for 
> years - something like 50 cents/gallon on gasoline equivalent, to try to
> prepare people for the inevitable shortages and smooth out the disruptions.
> Markets rarely drive intelligent long-term behavior. They are usually very
> short-sighted. It may be too late now.

I could perhaps agree if the collected funds went toward projects that moved 
us toward real energy solutions and could be kept out of the hands of the 
various enviro-socialist political groups and their paid-for politicians.

Thanks for the info.

Michael