Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
Until we have politicians that are willing to forego those lobbying dollars and campaign contributions, nothing will happen to extract big oil's claws from us.
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Except for an increase in the price of oil.
And I don't mean an artificial increase through legislation, either, I mean a nice, natural market-based increase. Or spike. Whatever.
You clearly have a distaste for Big Oil, and I can't say I blame you. Like any entity with enough power, they have a tendency to overreach and do less-than-reputable things. However, the same insatiability for profits will drive them to continue providing some kind of petroleum substitute or alternative long after the oil is gone. TBH, I think they already have one, but since drilling is cheaper they just use that.
If it were up to me, I'd take the leash off of Big Oil and just let them go to town. No taxes, other than an effluent tax, no trade restrictions, no quotas, no embargoes, no drilling restrictions on land they own. However, as long as I'm pretending that I have such fiat power, I'd also curb legislative power across the board to the point of near-impotence that would require a supermajority for any minor legislative or regulatory powers left not already set in stone. Who ya' gonaa lobby
now A-holes? I guess you'll have to provide a good or service at an agreeable price.
Granted, there will be places where they'll charge whatever the market will bear, but I don't see that as a problem. IMO, many people are too quick to see themselves as victims of a power far greater than themselves, or worse, see themselves as entitled to a share of that power and wealth, and too many ambitious politicians are too quick to take advantage of that. For some reason, people tend to forget that they also have power as consumers and employees and informed voters. I'm not afraid of Big Oil. Big Oil is my, for lack of a better word, biatch. Big Oil is my employer's biatch. They
will give us oil at a reasonable cost or we'll simply take our business elsewhere. Failing that, we'll just use something else, or we'll make our own oil, or we'll cut back on our usage. We may even organize to bring prices down. Monopsony is monpoly's more powerful twin.