RE: GP Comments on Ethanol

I recently tried to post this on a different blog which doesn't seem to be letting me write anything longer than a sentence or two:

.Here's the big problem with ethanol: the government stuck it's thumb on the scale. It shouldn't do that. It does that for petroleum, too. It shouldn't. No industry should receive an unfair competitive advantage from the government.

Look what happens. We have Haitians who can't get enough food (prices are too high because it's being used to fuel our cars) and are resorting to eating baked mud so they don't feel hunger pains. That is what happens when government distorts markets.

Look at petrol. It's getting more and more expensive, and we have no substitute for it (except of course the aforemetioned miserably failing ethanol), and there's really nothing that close to release. That's what happens when the government distorts markets.

Let's just take away the special subsidies and tax breaks that the petroleum industry gets (not ALL AT ONCE, but slowly). And lets let competition and Smith's invisible hand take care of our energy trouble.

Re: GP Comments on Energy

I recently tried to post this on a different blog. It was on a post on energy policy, and is in response to some absolute crazies.

I love gasoline. I love oil. I love carbon! I want to INCREASE my carbon footprint, and in so doing, I will accomplish more for the environment than all the smelly liberal environmentalists put together.

You see, the way to make the environment cleaner is not by cutting back consumption, but by increasing it. It is economic prosperity that allows society to become so wealthy and spoiled that they can give the environment any consideration in the first place, it is economic prosperity that ushers in the technology that has made usincreasingly cleaner, and it is energy that allows that prosperity.

It is for these reasons that anyone who doesnt want to increase our energy supply is an enemy of the environment.

Dude. You are f---ing insane. Also, the best way to get oxygen: don't breathe. Also, if you take that line of logic, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell you.

I mean seriously, if you believe that the best way to cut down on pollution is to increase pollution...well...back to that bridge!

At my workplace (a small company), the “liberal” fascists have started a campaign to get people to cut back on the number of paper cups they use for coffee, etc. I’ve increased the number of cups I use.

Fascists wouldn't start a friendly campaign to do it. They'd point a gun at your head and command you to cut down on your use of cups or face the "consequences".

I spent Earth Day 2008 putting the thermostat to 72 degrees and snacking high on the food chain. Then I went out and filled up my car with premium unleaded and drove for about 1 hour.

Ok. Seriously, there is a space between being a Chicken Little, and being a scumbucket. You do realize that, right? Just because a lot of so-called "leftists" care about the environment doesn't mean you shouldn't.

And while prosperity does create new technologies, we don't develop new technologies by doggedly pouring good money after bad into the old ones (like oil and gas). We foster the development of new technologies by making investments, either in the market or in products which have a high initial investment, but which will pay for themselves over time.

So if you have some extra money, why not spend it on something useful instead of burning it away joyriding. Start saving up, and buy a set of solar panels for your roof. The price will start to come down as you save up and when you do buy them, eventually they will pay for themselves in savings. And then they will start paying back. That makes economic sense to you (and in general) and that's the kind of consumption that drives progress.

But if you tell the dog to speak, but give it a treat whether it barks or not...well, you're not going to train that dog. And if you just keep doing things the same way just to be contrarian, you're not going to drive progress any more than by sitting at home with your thumb up your ass.