atpcliff

Hi!

Actually, OUR gov't subsidizes our gasoline prices, too.

Picture this:
Lots of Solar and Wind collectors out West, and off the coast, with water power collectors all over....batteries?

TONS of plug-in hybrids, or elec vehicles, all with big batteries...millions and millions of them plugged into the smart grid. THEY store the solar power, when needed, and then release their power, when needed.

Storage problem solved.

cliff
NBO

FighterHayabusa

- Batteries are still pretty sucky. Not everyone is open to the idea of laying down a few grand every xx miles when their battery pack starts dying. And they still ALL do die, even without being used.

- Batteries require a lot of energy to produce, the mining process for the raw materials is horribly polluting, as is the disposal of used batteries.

- simply charging and discharging a battery reduces overall efficiency, on top of energy costs to produce and replacement and maintenance costs

The fact is, even if you COULD get solar up to 100% efficiency cheaply, the battery problem significantly degrades that efficiency. If we did run out of fossil fuels, the smartest way to charge a car battery that WAS efficient would probably be with a nuclear plant, not a solar plant.

I think that synthetic fuel from an organic renewable feedstock (but NOT fricken corn) is the most promising since it won't require a complete infrastructure and/or engine technology change, burns cleaner than fossil fuel (plus the better photosynthesizers eat more CO2 as they're being grown), and does not have reduced efficiency because of the "on demand" problem.

FighterHayabusa

I can think of a parallel argument about the distorting effects of some people's scare tactics on the Social Security shortfall

jungle

YouTube - Why Communism Fails

SteamJet

To all of you who think something like this could never happen here, wake up and smell the coffee. Stand up for liberty or you will get tyranny.

atpcliff

Hi!

Communism was destined to fail, because it was a Utopian system. It was a fantasy, that was never practical.

Communism is one of those old, conservative ideas, that has long outlived it's usefullness.

Let's spend our energy by moving forward and trying to improve our country.

cliff
NBO

DYNASTY HVY

Anyone remember the story about the boy who cried wolf ?
Unless I,m mistaken the world was supposed to have run out of oil during the 70's or 80's .
So how can anyone really believe what is said to them by so-called experts when they have been wrong in the past.

Ally

jungle

This is a first, communism is not really a "conservative" idea, in fact it is just the opposite.

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Fiscal conservatism is the economic philosophy of prudence in government spending and debt. Edmund Burke, in his 'Reflections on the Revolution in France', articulated its principles:

...[I]t is to the property of the citizen, and not to the demands of the creditor of the state, that the first and original faith of civil society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, superior in equity. The fortunes of individuals, whether possessed by acquisition or by descent or in virtue of a participation in the goods of some community, were no part of the creditor's security, expressed or implied...[T]he public, whether represented by a monarch or by a senate, can pledge nothing but the public estate; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large.

In other words, a government does not have the right to run up large debts and then throw the burden on the taxpayer; the taxpayers' right not to be taxed oppressively takes precedence even over paying back debts a government may have imprudently undertaken.
wiki
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Main Entry: com·mu·nism
Pronunciation: \ˈkäm-yə-ˌni-zəm, -yü-\
Function: noun
Etymology: French communisme, from commun common
Date: 1840
1 a : a theory advocating elimination of private property b : a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
2 capitalized a : a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics b : a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production c : a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably d : communist systems collectively
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The only real question is which system will best carry the world to a better way. The question has been answered many times in the last century to any who care to listen.

Picture this: Free markets allowed to respond to the individual desires and needs of the people, without interference and without centralized control. The ultimate method of voting the future by individual free choice.

DYNASTY HVY

As a Russian citizen living in America I can tell you that the differences are polar opposite and it's not a road that you would want to travel as a lot of my countrymen were killed going down the wrong path.



Ally

atpcliff

Hi!

Peak Oil people have NEVER said the world would run out of oil. The production of oil will Peak (meaning over 1/2 of recoverable oil has been produced), and then every year after that will be less production. THe problem is if demand can't be reduced to fit the amount of production, then the costs will go up a lot, and we will have an energy deficit. That can be prevented if we transition away from oil soon enough.

As you pointed out, Communism is a VERY old idea 1840s....conservative/old/in the past.

Russia never had a communist government. Communism is impossible. The leaders of Russia called it Communism, but it was not. Just like many of the racist people who object to Obama. The say they are objecting to "X", but really they are racist and just using it as an excuse, because it is not socially acceptable to admit you are overtly racist.

cliff
NBO