Posted on 02/21/2008 9:59:47 PM PST by kellynla
Bump
He has a point. Has any other country in history spent its work-created wealth on purchasing a natural resource from another country like we do for oil? Did Spain purchase gold from the Mayans and Aztecs? Did England purchase diamonds and gold from the Zulu tribes of South Africa?
T Boone Pickens gave LA Mayor Villaraigosa a very large amount of money for those telephone tax ads during the election....in exchange, look for the Port of LA to mandate LPG fueled trucks at the Port very soon.
correction....
LNG trucks....
and guess who will be supplying them?
Environmentalists.
He has a point. Has any other country in history spent its work-created wealth on purchasing a natural resource from another country like we do for oil? Did Spain purchase gold from the Mayans and Aztecs? Did England purchase diamonds and gold from the Zulu tribes of South Africa?Hyper powers with long longevity always survive via trade. Both England and Spain failed as world powers because they were unable to manage their colonies and resources in a sustainable way. Amy Chua has a good book, with well grounded recommendations IMO. Check it out here.
Looks like an interesting book, I’ll have to look for it the next time I’m at the library.
I know exactly of what you speak.
For years, Atlantic Richfield of California paid my grandmother monthly for the oil/gas option on property she owned in the lower San Joaquin Valley. The well is capped and we own it now.
There is still oil and gas down there. It’s now a waiting game.
Looks like an interesting book, I’ll have to look for it the next time I’m at the library.Be warned that the author is a liberal who supports social engineering. However, her analysis is spot on. Very smart woman.
the electric car is our only hope.
England is once again in contention as a world world. In case you haven’t noticed, London and NYC are in a death-match for title of world financial center.
England is once again in contention as a world world. In case you haven’t noticed, London and NYC are in a death-match for title of world financial center.England may be a world power even now, but they're not a hyper-power.
Can you define “hyper power?”
A uni-polar power that dominates the world. i.e. the Persian empire, Rome, the Tang dynasty, the Mongols, the Dutch, the English and the US post-cold war are the accepted hyper-powers of their eras.
All the historical examples had military advantage. I’m not sure how much of a factor that is today.
Exactamundo! Environmentalists and their allies in the Senate and various statehouses have blocked drilling in ANWR and offshore coastal waters, construction of new refineries, expanded use of coal, and mandated boutique fuels. The first two directly prevent domestic production from expanding, while the latter two keep oil prices high which makes the average person hate oil and go along with alternative schemes like burning food for fuel instead of getting more oil.
All the historical examples had military advantage. I’m not sure how much of a factor that is today.Military power was only a small part of each. There have been many better militaries comparatively. It was the *cultural* aspects of each hyper-power that allowed it to be dominant.
I have wondered the same thing, especially since I have some property with known oil reserves in the panhandle of Florida, they were ready to drill in the 80's then capped everything off and haven't returned.
I was told the Florida EPA has since made it hard to drill so they just moved north to Alabama.
We live in an interesting world. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens next. However, I do worry about the fate of my country.
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