Not only ignorance and hypocrisy at the time, the same vein of thinking persists today, in the face of all reason and history. The intellectual successors to Ned Ludd and his followers, the Luddites, have been trying to shut down ANY new technology which threatens to bring any goods or services to the consumers more quickly or more cheaply than before, not because they do not want things quicker or cheaper, but because they are pushed out of their “comfort zones” as their old ways vanish, often dramatically and with no adequate substitute.
‘Tis a pity that people should define themselves so narrowly.
I say keep the ban.
We shouldn’t be exporting raw materials, when we have high unemployment.
We can export finished products but not raw materials.
And we should restore the import tariffs on finished products. Let them be made here in America and put Americans back to work.
Then someone needs to explain the freaking high gas prices!
If we are exporting refined crude in the form of gasoline, then the supply and demand excuse for high prices goes out the window.
Shipping a product around the world is never cheaper than selling it to your neighbor next door.
Nothing Congress or O’bastard could do would help our economy more than $1.50 a gal gas would, nothing!