Thomas Sowell: Too "Complex"? »
Posted by: SonOfTheMask 3 months, 3 weeks agoSome people think that the reason the public misunderstands so many issues is that these issues are too "complex" for most voters. But is that really so?
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SonOfTheMask3 months, 3 weeks ago
FTA: "The problem is not that supply and demand is such a complex explanation. The problem is that supply and demand is not an emotionally satisfying explanation. For that, you need melodrama, heroes and villains."
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abntv3 months, 3 weeks ago
This is far to simple...the far left will never understand it. I totally agree with him..in that increasing the taxes on oil companys will only put more money in the government pocket. It will not save the consumer a dime. And Hillary saying that the oil companys should pay the tax is insane. In the first place. How much will the oil companys have to pay. Gas taxes are based on consumption.
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stephen-johnson3 months, 3 weeks ago
The idea of don't know their a$$es from their elbows politicians seizing the profits of oil companies and squandering it on their cockamamie programs sends shivers down my spine.
Sowell gets it - the politiciians would rather give the public demagoguery rather than solutions. And the public doesn't seem to care.
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Endoscopy3 months, 3 weeks ago
The Democrats have kept the country from drilling for oil in the gulf and Anwar.
The Democrats keep stopping refineries from being built.
The Democrats stop nuclear power plants from being built.
The Democrats then blame the Republicans for short supply of fuel causing the increase of price.
Too complicated for them I guess. Everything has to be the Republican's fault. That is their simple solution for everything.
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flyonthewallzz3 months, 3 weeks ago
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libsRfunny3 months, 3 weeks ago
The Gulf of Mexico. He's referring to expanding oil exploration and drilling ...
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/04/gri...
"Congress might also consider opening up the 85% of the nation's continental shelf to exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas that it has declared off-limits, but it refuses to do this. Meanwhile, China is exploring for oil just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, courtesy of Cuba."
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aniokly3 months, 3 weeks ago
We have not been permitted by the Democrats in Congress to build new refineries, or to dig in the ANWR, or Colorado, or Utah, where we would have twice as much oil as the Saudis, but we have to suffer $4. a gallon gas. It is a shame our own politicians are making our life miserable. They want high gas prices. Democrats have wanted us to get those SUVs off the road for decades. They are positively gleeful. Find out if your candidate will allow us to dig domestic oil, if not vote them out in November. We must send them a message no matter what party they belong to.
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Bkumm3 months, 3 weeks ago
See, your comments explain much of what Sowell is arguing against.
1. Congress hasn't kept anyone from building a new refinery. It is expensive however, because of clean air and clean water regulations. These have significantly improved both air and water quality in the US over the last 30 years.
2. The US has approx 22 BBO of proven reserves. Even accounting for ANWR and the Bakken Formation reserves will only increase by double. Colorado and Utah have few if any proven reserves and nobody is keeping people from drilling there. Regardless the Saudis have approx 280 BBO in proven reserves, nothing the US has is even close, much less twice.
3. If you read the article, Sowell argues that it is a simple matter of supply vs. demand. If so, the SUV's driven by the American consumer certainly did not help the problem.
Just some information for your perusal.
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flyonthewallzz3 months, 3 weeks ago
"Despite the fact that gas prices have skyrocketed over the past seven years, the United States is currently taking 70,000 barrels of oil a day off the market to continue filling the nation's SPR. Moreover, the DOE recently announced plans to increase this SPR fill rate to 76,000 barrels per day"
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny22_hinch...
Unsurprisingly, its oil consumption for aircraft, ships, ground vehicles and facilities makes the Pentagon the single largest oil consumer in the world. By the way, according to the 2006 CIA World Factbook rankings there are only 35 countries (out of 210) in the world that consume more oil per day than the Pentagon.
http://www.energybulletin.net/26194.html
Let's get pragmatic, okay.
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flyonthewallzz3 months, 3 weeks ago
Compare ANWAR to SPR, just for perspective.(apples oranges and bird in the ground)
"Increasing production in the first and second years is scheduled as 25,000 and 50,000 barrels per day, respectively. Peak production of 10 percent of the annual development rate, approximately 100,000 barrels per day, is scheduled in the third year of production. Beginning in the fourth year production declines at an exponential rate of 10 percent per year, ending after 40 years."
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/an...
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flyonthewallzz3 months, 3 weeks ago
DOD consumes 395,000 barrels per day.
http://www.energybulletin.net/13199.html
If any of my sources are BS let me know.
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nostalgia3 months, 3 weeks ago
Look at the outer continental shelf estimates:
Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment 2006:
66.6 to 115.3 billion barrels of oil in U.S.
326.4 to 565.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/162214...
Congress needs to wake up and realize that the only way to bring prices down in the short term is to increase supply
That will help bring the prices down to a reasonable level while the longer term strategies are developed
They need to do both at once - more supply AND long term strategies to reduce dependence on foreign oil
Why is it that Congress is always missing half of the equation?
Without increasing the supply in the short term we will be looking at escalating prices for decades.
Does anyone seriously believe that the demand from China and India will lessen? As those countries continue to develop, the demand for oil will outpace supply
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nostalgia3 months, 3 weeks ago
"70,000 barrels of oil a day"
That's a drop in the bucket compared to the 20 million barrels per day that is used in the US
We are approaching hurricane season. All it will take is destruction of rigs in the Gulf to increase prices dramatically
Do you think these politicians will step up to the plate and admit that suspending delivery to the reserve was a mistake if that occurs?
Where does the oil for the reserve come from??
The oil is delivered from oil companies as payment in kind for royalties owed for pumping oil from federal land.
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flyonthewallzz3 months, 3 weeks ago
I hope to get back to add to your commnet.
I have a busy day today.
The RIK program, in my mind, has some flaws.
I read a GAO report about it.
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tbkennedy533 months, 3 weeks ago
The question that keeps coming to mind is that why would the government want to reduce the price? They get more money the higher the price. They make more than the oil companies per gallon and receive higher tax payments form the companies. Their talk is just that, talk.
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tbkennedy533 months, 3 weeks ago
I also wonder why the propeller anchors would never recommend a story like this for the tabs. Not in keeping with their audience? Just curious.
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chevydog3 months, 3 weeks ago
Thomas Sowell has a column in one of our suburban newspapers. I've always found them to be too simple.
IMHO, the free market is great. But, as I was taught many long years ago, you have to have one first. Most companies, in spite of their rhetoric, will fight like the devil to avoid being in a free market situation. Not that they dislike competition (though mostly they do). But the thought of free entry to (and free exit from) a market spooks them. Generally the feeling is "there's something not fair about a market that I have to leave."
Was it Will Rogers who observed that we have a great economic system--free enterprise for the people and socialism for business?
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Howtogo3 months, 3 weeks ago
If voters are given "TRUE REALISTIC" facts about both sides of an issue, they can make realistic judgments about that issue. The problem comes about when spin is applied to the facts to make a point for one side of the issue.
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Wolfie20073 months, 3 weeks ago
Thomas Sowell makes it so even a "simple" minded liberal can understand but they don't want to believe anything truthful so, therefore, they always believe any conspiracy of the moment.
I saw this comment posted yesterday by a Propeller liberal.
"The price of oil is high because Bush is mad because he can't drill in Alaska." Now how can you deal with a simpleminded statement like that? lol
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Bkumm3 months, 3 weeks ago
This is great! Sowell argues that it's not "emotionally satisfying" to not have someone to blame for high oil prices and then immediately takes off on an appeal to emotion. It cracks me up!!
The problem with high oil prices IS very much related to supply and demand, but that is far from the only part of the equation. Yes, it is VERY complicated. It isn't as simple as ECON 101.
It is too complicated for most people to understand and even if the time were taken to explain it to them, it would be difficult to get through all of the other BS ideology that gets in the way.
You should have posted this under Humor, SOTM!!!
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SonOfTheMask3 months, 3 weeks ago
Bkumm, I'd be careful about requesting Propeller to appropriately classify comment. Most of your comments would wind up in the circular file. Glass houses etc. etc.
Now, feel free to tell us again that you're just giving us your thoughts, it's a free country, you're not trying to tell anyone else how to post or what is worthy of discussion (but you are) and all the usual passive/aggressive, insincerely self-deprecatory remarks that usually ensue.
Have a nice day.
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Bkumm3 months, 3 weeks ago
Hilarious! Do you need a tissue?
Show me where I said that you (or anyone else) could not, should not and must not post a comment or post a submission. Show me. You can't. Can you?
You also can't show where I've said that this post isn't worthy of discussion. In fact, despite what you will almost certainly bring up, I said that only about a couple of topics mostly spam.
I have said that some topics are pointless, but I have most certainly NOT said that they aren't worthy of discussion. There is a distinct difference.
This submission is hilarious. It is an argument to emotion about arguing to emotion. I find it immensely amusing and I'll post whatever I want about it.
Now, you have a nice day.
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simonsez3 months, 3 weeks ago
These facts aren't as pretty or as emotionally appealing. But they are important for anyone
involved in the ANWR debate. On the coastal plain, the Arctic winter lasts for 9 months. It is
dark continuously for 56 days in midwinter. Temperatures with the wind chill can reach -110
degrees F. It's not pristine. There are villages, roads, houses, schools, and military installations.
It's not a unique Arctic ecosystem. The coastal plain is only a small fraction of the 88,000 square
miles that make up the North Slope. The same tundra environment and wildlife can be found
throughout the circumpolar Arctic regions. The 1002 Area is flat. That's why they call it a plain.
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simonsez3 months, 3 weeks ago
The excerpt above came from a story on ANYR. There was a photo of the plains, but I couldn't bring it over. It is a freezing desolate dark area.
I don't know how ANYR became the poster child for environmentalists. It is some of the most brutal real estate on the planet. Has anybody been there? Do you want to go?
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HOUSEMD3 months, 3 weeks ago
If you want cheering crowds, don't bother to study economics. It will only hold you back. Tell people what they want to hear and they don't want to hear about supply and demand. Obama, McCain, Clinton, they all are appealing to emotions in this elections, just as EVERY politician before them has done. They tell their supporters what they want to hear and do damn well what they please once in office.
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SonOfTheMask
"I often wish that I could rid the world of the tyranny of facts. What are facts but compromises? A fact merely marks the point ...
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