Frontline: Is Wal-Mart Good for America? - Page 8

Il_Mostro · #71 12-09-2004, 04:13 AM

As I said in my post below, I am planning to stop hijacking this thread now... just a few quick notes to you

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On the contrary, capitalism is the only economic system that effectively deals with the problems of scarcity.

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I meant to say abundance of energy. That is not the same as scarcity of hairdressers or whale oil.

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There are plenty of other sources of energy that we will be able to tap. Who knows what they might be--solar panels, hydrogen cells, cow farts... doesn't matter. At the moment, we've got all the oil me need (there was even news today about OPEC fearing an oversupply). As long as there is no real incentive to invest in tapping these other energy sources, we won't see them in the market. When oil starts getting scarce (10 years? 30 years? 200 years?) then the market will respond by investing in the next logical source.

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exactly, who knows that they are, no one does, we do not know of any energy source that can take over from oil.
Do you have any concept of how long it takes to comercialize a new source of energy? For 50 years they have said that fusion is 50 years away...

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Ye of little faith.

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Guilty as charged.

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It's just a matter of harnessing it and putting it to use.

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Yes. And today we have no way of doing that.

Now, I don't mean to be rude. But the questions and "solutions" you post leads me to belive you don't really know much about the issue, have you studied oil depletion? Thermo dynamics? Physics? I don't have the energy or the will to keep saying things that are easily found in greater lenght and better argued at other places. Start by reading the links in my "Essential reading" post, then we can start debate again. Again, no offense meant.

MrSoul · #72 12-09-2004, 01:16 PM

My background is in economics. I could continue on with this thread but, like you, I'm getting tired of it. A good environmental economics book will further explain my points.

Il_Mostro · #73 12-10-2004, 06:26 AM

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A good environmental economics book will further explain my points.

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Do you have any sugestions? Seriously, I'd like to know, there are so many books out there, many who are garbage, difficult to find the good ones.

But they have to understand and comment on things like extraction rates, EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Input) and modern societies reliance on energy. Economists who have no idea and doesn't take these things into account are just (imo) talking out of their asses.